Finding Home (Pt 1): Our First Big Decision
Three great options. One major choice.
Just because we’re in Costa Rica now doesn’t mean our work is done. We’re just getting started.
The most important thing on our checklist is finding a new home. We’re staying at Secrt for the week, but we have no plans beyond that.
Finding our house in Florida was an adventure of its own.
We wanted something with a big yard.
We wanted it for a decent price.
And we wanted something we could grow into.
At first glance it seems like a reasonable list of requirements. That is until you realize this was at the height of the housing frenzy. Houses were being listed and sold in days.
We looked at so many houses in 2021. In fact, we almost gave up. After seeing what would be our future house, we didn’t even put in a bid. What was the point if it was just going to sell later that day?
The following day we got a message from our realtor, “Are you going to put in a bid?”
“It was such a nice house. We thought there was a bidding war already,” I replied.
“Well, their realtor is asking if you’re interested. So if you want it, put in a bid,” she responds.
So we went to the portal and submitted our bid. At this point we aren’t counting our eggs before they’re hatched. We are so used to getting bad news.
A couple days later we got the most beautiful message from our realtor “Congrats! You’re homeowners.”
Over the years we turned that house into our dream home. It had bold colors, decorations galore – a little touch of us in every room. We thought we would live there a long time.
But you know the end to that story.
We just finished a wonderful breakfast at a cafe just steps away from the Airbnb. This is one of the great things about our location in San Jose. We don’t need to go very far to find anything.
Another advantage of being this close to Secrt is, we don’t have to rush back before our realtor comes to pick us up at 11am.
After wrapping up breakfast, we make the leisurely trip back to our room. A half an hour later we get a call from our realtor. He’s almost there. We can start heading down.
As we start heading towards the elevator, the lights shut down and the emergency lights turn on. The power is out!
During moments like this there is often good news and bad news. The good news is, if we left any earlier we would be stuck in the elevator. The bad news is, now we have to walk down 21 floors. We have a schedule to keep and we don’t know when the power will come back on.
We were also in a hurry to find an apartment. We didn’t want another house hunting experience like the last time. So we start our descent down to avoid any delays.
It seems like a never ending stairway. We pass multiple groups of people, some are huffing and puffing their way up — an unenviable task. Others are on their way down like us. We hear curses and shouts.
By floor 10 I’m convinced this stairwell is actually an endless loop. Luckily Pookie isn’t with us or I might be carrying him too.
But we are on a mission.
There is no time to despair.
If we don’t find a home this week, we’ll have to figure something out.
After what seems like an eternity we finally reach the bottom. In the coming days our legs will feel like noodles, but for now our adrenaline keeps us going.
Nacho is waiting with a smile when we finally emerge – sweaty and exhausted. “Ready for some apartment hunting?” he asks, as if power outages and stair marathons were just part of a normal day. Maybe here, they were.
We see three places, each with its own charm.
When we see the first apartment, we immediately fall in love.
It’s in a much calmer part of San Jose.
It’s higher in the mountains and it has a cooler climate.
It has a nature trail we can take Pookie on.
And it has multiple rooms which makes it easier to have visitors.
We are almost immediately sold. The fresh air, the calm, and the near silence makes it feel more like a retreat space than an apartment.
If the first apartment had the tranquility we were seeking, the second apartment had convenience.
It has a gym, basketball/soccer field, and sauna.
It has two pools: one for exercise and one for lounging.
It has restaurants, a salon, and a mini market.
It has coworking and relaxation spaces on the top floor.
And it has three dog parks for Pookie to run around in.
The striking architecture and pristine condition of the complex makes it feel like a modern self-contained city.
This makes our choice harder. We love both of these places and can see ourselves living there.
Our final stop for the day is a familiar sight. We are back at Secrt so we know most of the advantages already.
It has an amazing top floor and lounge area.
It has a heated pool and a nice dog park for Pookie.
It is next to the wonderful little cafe we went to earlier.
And it is a place we already know we like.
It’s also conveniently located near the amazing Mexican restaurant Nacho took us to for lunch.
By this point, it felt like choosing between three ice cream flavors we already love — pistachio, passion fruit, and coconut. You can’t go wrong, but you still have to pick one.
Unlike our past troubles finding a home, our trouble here was picking from many good options.
When Anita and I first decided to move we wanted to qualify under a different visa. Instead of applying for a rentista visa, which is similar to a digital nomad style vista, we wanted to apply through the investment visa.
We contacted a legal team that specializes in the investment visa early on. They were very persistent in trying to get us to fill out all the paperwork involved with that process. If applying for a rentista visa was hard, the investment visa was probably much harder.
We felt good about that process until we explained the situation to our realtor, Nacho, who told us he could get us in touch with one of his friends who was an immigration lawyer – just in case we had questions. And believe me, we had a lot of questions.
You might remember Lorena from before. She was the one who told us about importing our stuff from Florida.
After discussing our plan with her, she was very blunt with us. “You might want to reconsider the investment visa. It requires a lot of money, and if you don’t like Costa Rica, you are pretty much stuck with a company here,” she explained.
Basically, the investment visa is like getting married to Costa Rica on day one – a commitment we weren’t ready to make yet. So we decided to change paths and apply for rentista visas.
We told her we were ready to move forward. We didn’t sign any contracts or pay her up front. She was helping us in faith that we would pay her after we submitted all of our paperwork. That’s when we knew we found the right lawyer.
Our initial plan when working with our realtor was to buy a house from the start. We knew we were coming for the long haul, so why wait?
But after some discussions, we decided to spend at least the first year in San Jose. This would allow us to do all our paperwork and other tasks in the capital instead of driving back and forth. We would also be able to walk everywhere instead of needing to buy a car.
Through even more research we learned that buying a house in Costa Rica was not an investment like in the US. Once you buy it, you pretty much own it for life. So instead of rushing into the situation, we decided to spend the year really looking for where we wanted to go.
Back at Secrt, Anita and I are weighing our options. “The mountain place has that peaceful vibe we wanted,” I said. “But the convenience of the second place. It has everything we need and three dog parks for Pook...” she countered. We went back and forth, weighing tranquility against convenience, retreat against community.
As if the universe were eavesdropping on our conversation, we get a call from Nacho. “Someone else is interested in Apartment B. If you want it, they are looking for a down payment (one month’s rent) today.”
My stomach tightened. Were we about to lose out again, like in Florida? But this time felt different—instead of scarcity and competition, we had options. We weren’t desperate; we were choosing. And somehow, that made the decision easier – let’s do it.
“We want to reserve it but we don’t have a bank account yet,” we told him.
“I can send the owner the money now and you can pay me back tomorrow when you give them the first month’s rent.,” he responded.
This would have been unthinkable in the United States. Just like with the lawyer, we had no contract with him. We had only meant over a few calls online. Can we trust someone we met for the first time?
But somewhere along the process we decided to just have faith that things would turn out. I guess Pura Vida is starting to rub off on us already.
“Let’s do it,” I said.
“Great. We’ll all meet at the apartment tomorrow at noon,” says Nacho.
And that’s the start of our journey to come up with $2,400 in cash in less than 24 hours – the game is afoot.
What’s a really difficult decision you’ve had to make? How did you decide what to do? Let us know in the comments.
Up next: The Hunt for Cash
Series in Order:
We Weren’t Unhappy But We Left Anyway
Why We Left a Good Life Behind
Letting Go (Pt. 1): The Beginning of a Creative Reset
Letting Go (Pt. 2): Clearing Space for What’s Next
Between Worlds (Pt. 1): The Messy Middle of a Creative Reset
Between Worlds (Pt. 2): Saying Goodbye to Our Old Lives
Final Farewell (Pt. 1): Saying Goodbye to Orlando
Final Farewell (Pt. 2): Our Last Days in Florida
Journey to San Jose (Pt. 1): The Not So Calm Before the Storm
Journey to San Jose (Pt. 2): We’ve Finally Made It
Journey to San Jose (Pt. 3): First Day Adventures
Currently Reading: Finding Home (Pt. 1): Our First Big Decision
Finding Home (Pt. 2): The Race For Cash
Finding Home (Pt. 3): A New Start
Settling In (Pt. 1): Early Lessons & Adventures
Settling In (Pt. 2): So Many Curveballs
Settling In (Pt. 3): Everyday Moments That Make This Home
Settling In (Pt. 4): The End of the Beginning
When I read you were wanting to buy a house right away, I was like, "Oh no no no!" I'm so happy for you that you're taking a year to learn the flow/vibe of the different areas you're thinking of landing. And as many people as you'll hear talk bad about the GAM (Gran Área Metropolitana), there are some absolutely lovely nooks, and plenty of areas just outside the city that are close enough for easy-ish access. (Traffic can be an absolute pain-in-the-ass at the wrong time.)
I could only handle so much city time before I had to run back to small town life, though. Buen suerte with the next steps!