How do I find a decent local contractor to help me build my house in Costa Rica?2490081

The first thing to know about doing business and securing the services of a Costa Rica Real Estate Agent is that your expectations as an American consumer do not always mesh with the Tico’s expectation of rendering a contracting service. When you’re dealing with differences in language, measurements, life-style, and role expectations, you are bound to have problems. The second thing to do is to talk to your expat friends and acquaintances. Find out if they’ve found a local contractor that they can work with. Get as many referrals as you can. Then proceed to vet them. What should I look for in a housing contractor in Costa Rica? Primarily, you want someone who’s worked successfully with expats. He’ll already have an idea of what you expect from him, and he’ll be somewhat exposed to American sensibilities when it comes to housing. Tico homes are typically much smaller and don’t have certain features like an indoor laundry room that most Americans are looking for. Rather, Tico homes have drying rooms to hang their clothes, as they don’t have dryers. Second, as mentioned above, look for referrals from expats that have employed this contractor. Ask them about their experience. Was he easy to talk to? Did he understand what you wanted? How was his work ethic? How was the quality? Did you get what you wanted or were you frustrated? And so forth. Third, check out his work. Ideally, you’d be able to visit a completed project and see it up close and personal. In lieu of that, ask him if he has a portfolio of photos that you can review.

How do I deal with the cultural difference between Tico contractors and Americans? While there is no guarantee of smooth sailing, if you properly vet the contractor as referenced above and do the following, your chances of finding an appropriate contractor are much higher. 1. Interview several contractors for the job and do a proper interview each time. Explore their work history, check out their work, and definitely collect references. When I was looking to renovate the home we’d just bought, I interviewed a number of contractors. But, I decided to ignore those interviews and go with the “friend of a friend” of the guy that sold us the house in the first place. We learned the hard way that that is NOT the way to secure trustworthy and capable work. 2. Investigate your mutual communication skills. During your interviews, pay attention to how easily the two of you converse. Discuss your expectations of him. Get his expectations of his role as your contractor. Explain what you want in the project and have him repeat and rephrase it to make sure you’re on the same page. Lay it all out and gauge his response. A blessing that came out of the fiasco with remodeling our home was that I got to meet a splendid fellow that helped me get the house I wanted. We got along really well. He put up with my Spanish, which at that time was a huge deal for me. In order to finish the house, we had to do several remodels and he patiently worked with me the whole time. He understood exactly what I wanted and we’d draw it out together. Sometimes he’d come back to me with some ideas or proposed changes to overcome some obstacle. It was perfect because each of us took the time to really communicate with and understand each other. That’s the type of working relationship that you are looking for. 3. Get a signed contract that lays out exactly what each of you expect. This is less a legal thing than a clarification thing. Laws are different down here. But a mutually agreed upon contract can serve as a written agreement of the scope of work involved and what each party expects. Sometimes we are tempted, especially when we are particularly fond of someone, to do a verbal agreement. The problem with verbal agreements is that they are easily forgotten. A written contract or scope of work will give the contractor something to refer to, and it’ll give you something to fall back on, if needed. After I’ve secured the services of a general contractor, how much do I need to supervise? Watch for warning signs and be on top of the work. Warning signs will include things like breaking promises in terms of when he shows up for work, disregarding your instructions, a completely different demeanor when working with you on the project than he had during the interview, and so forth. Trust your instincts, if they are saying this contractor won’t work out, then move on and get one that will. Also, even if you feel that the two of you communicate beautifully, stay onsite and double check the work at frequent stages. There are too many ways for confusion to set in and the project to be done incorrectly. When I was building my house with the fiasco contractor, I had to double check everything. Good thing I did because I prevented them from putting the garage in the wrong place when they were laying it out. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if I hadn’t caught the error until after the garage was constructed? My local contractor hasn’t done the job I asked of him. I’m in Costa Rica, what recourse do I have? You have money on your side. Properly document what you’ve asked for so that when this occurs you can tell the contractor that you will not pay them until the project is done to the standard that you’ve requested. Stick to your guns and simply don’t accept the work. If the cabinets you ordered aren’t right, if the counter-top isn’t high enough, if they missed something you requested, don’t accept the work. The contractor or supplier will be surprised and possibly angry. It’ll be inconvenient, awkward, and uncomfortable. You’ll want to just go ahead and accept the work. Don’t. Make the contractor redo the work at his expense. Send back the cabinets and request that they fix it. Get what you asked for. It’ll be a learning experience all around, but ultimately it’ll be good for the two cultures in figuring out how to deal with each other. I relocated to Costa Rica a number of years ago. Now, I share my experiences and other tips regarding Retire in costa rica in hopes of helping others contemplating a similar move. If you are interested in subscribing to my blog or to keep up to date on my listings, please sign up at http://ackermanrealtyinternational.com/subscribe-today/. Summary: Tips on how to resolve culture differences between expats and Costa Rican contractors.