Introduction
Good morning, Jake. How are you doing?
[Jake Rieke]
Good. How are you doing, Richard?
[Richard Bexon]
Good. It’s always kind of nice but weird when I have someone that we’ve worked with for many years and was also an investor in my project and now moved down here to Costa Rica kind of come on my podcast, but I suppose everything comes full circle.
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah, well, happy to be on.
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah.
[Jake Rieke]
Thanks for having me.
[Richard Bexon]
Not at all, man. It’s an absolute pleasure to have you on here. Well, the first question I always love to ask, Jake, is just that a lot of listeners here don’t always have perspective of kind of like what’s happening here in Costa Rica.
We know there’s a lot of volatility in Western markets and that probably doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon. But I mean, what are you seeing happening here in Costa Rica? How would you summarize what’s happening here?
Grecia Free Zone Development and Construction Boom
[Jake Rieke]
Well, I mean, I can see it in my own backyard. So we bought in Gracia, which is a free zone, one of the free zones here in Costa Rica. And there is just there’s construction happening all over the place.
I mean, there’s one of my neighbors is a real estate agent here, and he talks about just the amount of investment happening in this area, the amount of money that’s being poured into into these free zones in the Gracia construction left and right. The McDonald’s just popped up and it was in an insane time frame. I couldn’t believe it.
It’s on our route to that we take our kids to school. And from the minute that we saw them start to the minute that we saw first customers in that McDonald’s, it just blew our minds. It was like five or six weeks.
I just couldn’t believe how fast this. So it’s really just a story of growth. And we’re in probably one of the biggest hotspots in Costa Rica right now in terms of investment.
[Richard Bexon]
No, I agree. I mean, I think Gracia, San Ramon, I mean, everything is moving out there. All the distribution centers are moving out there.
All of the biotech and biomedical companies are all moving out there as well, because I think Costa Rica has a really educated workforce. And I think that that’s, you know, I mean, I think we’re seeing a bit of a transition here in Costa Rica. We used to have like a lot of call centers, a lot of more manual work.
But now, because of the education and the opportunities, it’s a lot more technical expert work that’s kind of happening here. And of course, all of that stuff is looking for free trade zones where they pay, you know, little to no taxes. And it’s good for Costa Rica because we get employment and usually they’re very well paid.
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah, no, I think the workforce here is a great opportunity for many of these big companies. And just the stability that Costa Rica offers is, you know, it’s a well-established country with well-established norms, a long history, as opposed to some of the other markets around the world. Yeah.
Decision to Move to Costa Rica from the United States
[Richard Bexon]
Well, Jake, I mean, you guys moved, you did the big move to Costa Rica. I mean, why did you decide to do that?
[Jake Rieke]
A lot of reasons kind of came together at once. You know, first of all, we kind of hit this point in our lives where we just kind of had to decide what’s next. And my wife and I kind of sat and looked at each other and like, well, OK, we’ll move here, we’ll move there.
And then maybe someday we can go to Costa Rica and retire and live down there. And then, you know, eventually, after enough kind of tossing around all the various ideas, it kind of hit us. We were like, well, Costa Rica is an option now.
There’s nothing stopping us from moving down there. We live in an Internet-connected world. We live in that type of society where Costa Rica is totally an option.
We’re the same time zone as the U.S. or at least the central U.S. And so that wasn’t restricting us. But probably one of the other strongest motivations that we had was that we really believe in intercultural experiences and living outside of the U.S. in order to understand your own culture and understand where you come from. And we’ve seen that, you know, we’ve seen that value firsthand.
My wife and I, we were introduced to Central America via El Salvador. We actually spent two years in the Peace Corps from 2008 to 2010. And that kind of introduced us to the Spanish language, the Spanish culture or to the Central American culture.
And then we saw just the value of living in a different culture, you know, really just seeing how other people live their lives, other ways of seeing the world. And we wanted that for us again and for our children. And Costa Rica was just a great in-between in terms of school offerings, just a lot more to offer for the kids, music programs and things like that.
So that’s what, those were probably two of the main drivers, but there’s a whole bucket list beneath that as well.
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s, you know, I always say to people, I’m like, what’s the worst that can happen? You can always go back. Like, it’s not that big a deal, but, you know, but I think that once people get down here and they get past those first couple of months and they really start understanding the value of like living in Costa Rica, kind of the cleanliness, the food and like just the, you know, I mean, there’s not that much, it doesn’t move that fast, unfortunately, except when they’re building McDonald’s.
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah, exactly. It’s true. That was, and that was probably why it was so shocking is because we’re used to seeing construction move pretty slow here.
Transition Challenges and Family Adaptation in Grecia
[Richard Bexon]
Oh yeah, you can tell me about it, but I mean, what would you say the biggest shock or challenge has been to you and your family?
[Jake Rieke]
I don’t know. I think, let’s see, probably, honestly, I expected it, I expected the the transition to be more difficult. It went, I think it shocked us that it went as smoothly as it did, to be honest.
You know, we’ve had our ups and downs, like, we’ve had our good days and our bad days, but when I look back on the past year, like, our family handled it very well, and we became closer as a family unit, and so that, to be honest, it wasn’t, yes, there’s culture shocks, there’s obviously good times and bad times, and it’s a roller coaster, but the reality is, when you look back on it over the long haul, I think we did pretty well with the transition.
[Richard Bexon]
There’s nothing that jumps out, I mean, the kids have adapted pretty quickly, because, I mean, again, you know, it’s, yeah.
[Jake Rieke]
I’d say we’re, our younger daughter has adapted easier than our older daughter. We have an 11 and a 13 year old, and the 11 year old had a smoother transition. Our 13 year old is trending in the right direction, but it’s been more of a battle for her.
[Richard Bexon]
I mean, look, I’ve got a 12 coming on 13 year old daughter, and, I mean, I think we all remember being that age of, like, it’s you’re trying to identify who you are, and, like, you know, becoming a teenager, and those years are so important, and then throw another language and culture in there, but you know, I mean, I’d hope, and certainly for me, you know, I spent a lot of my childhood in France of, like, looking back, I go, it gave me such a huge opportunity, you know, to just be able to speak a different language and understand different cultures and different ways of doing things.
[Jake Rieke]
Right, and that really touches on one of our main goals, which is, like, look, you know, the only thing that we know about this world is that change. Change is the only thing that is a to a point where they can be comfortable with being uncomfortable, like, that’s about the only thing that we can be certain of is to help them learn how to navigate this changing world that we live in, and, you know, over the next, the change that we’ve seen in the past 30 years, like, I cannot even imagine what we’re going to see in the next 40 or 50 years.
Benefits of Living in Costa Rica’s Central Valley
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah, I mean, in the next 10 years, you know, with technology’s moving, and AI, etc. Actually, I think I had an interview this morning where the individual was reading from an AI prompter. Because I started asking some odd questions, just because I was like, I think he’s reading from an AI prompter.
And I started to ask some random questions. And the responses back were very weird. And I was like, he’s reading from an AI prompter.
That’s a first for me. But, but yeah, it’s, it’s going to be changing. And it’s, it’s, you know, the good thing about Costa Rica is I don’t think we move at the velocity the Western world does, we still move pretty fast, but we don’t move as quickly.
Yeah, yeah.
[Jake Rieke]
And, and I take value in that, to be honest, because it’s, it’s one of those things where we can have all these technological advances, we can have, you know, the iPhones, the all the crazy AI and stuff like that. But the reality is, is like the human experience is still what matters most, I think it’s and, and if you look back in time, like even, you know, going back to ancient cultures, like, who’s to say that they didn’t have a better, or more profound human experience than we do today, even though we have all the fancy technology.
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah, I mean, I chatted with a friend yesterday, she’s got back from a month in India. And she was just like, the simplicity of their lives and how happy they are is beautiful. And I think, you know, and I just saw Australia just banned social media the other day.
And I was like, wow, that’s a strong move, but probably a good thing. I mean, I want to keep my kids off it as long as I can. You know, which is very difficult to do, because they’re all on it.
Yeah, you know, but yeah, it’s just but what would you say the nicest thing about moving and living here has been?
[Jake Rieke]
Ah, well, certainly the weather, but like, you know, to, we landed in a place in the Central Valley in Gracia, where we don’t need heat, we don’t need air conditioners, we have air conditioners installed, and, and we rarely ever turn them on. It’s just so rare. Probably, the nicest thing is just waking up opening all of our patio doors, and we can hear the river, you know, outside our, our door.
And so you’re living in this, this mix between inside and outside, like, are you, you know, and so that’s kind of the, that’s just one of the greatest feelings. And then, on top of that, you’ve got this 1212 circadian rhythm, where this, it’s, you know, 5.30pm, more or less, the sun is going down, 5.30am the next morning. And that doesn’t change a whole lot throughout the whole year.
So you can really just fall into these rhythms with the with the sunrise and sunset and, and, you know, listen to the birds waking you up that that type of stuff.
[Richard Bexon]
Well, Jake, wait till you go back in like the summer to North America, and it’s like 10 o’clock at night, and the sun’s going down. And you’re like, Oh, it’s like six o’clock at night here. And then you check your watch, you’re like, it’s 10.
Like that happens to me in Europe.
[Jake Rieke]
So yeah, we, we did, we went back in this past July, I think it was for a week or two. And it threw it threw us off big time. And we’re just so confused, because it was 9.10pm. And we’re like, Oh, my gosh, I’m normally, you know, knocked out hard, hard sleeping by this time. And yeah, it does. It’s, it throws you off.
Relocation Advice: Research and Two-Year Commitment
[Richard Bexon]
What would be your advice? Because a lot of people listening to this that are thinking about look, you know, I think the biggest thing that a lot of people have is, you know, definitely schooling if they have families or kids, if they don’t have kids, I think life’s a lot easier. But we’ll get to the education system in a minute.
But what advice would you have for people thinking of doing the same that you have done?
[Jake Rieke]
I think the biggest advice is to take it slow. Really do your research. I think a relocation consultant like the like the service that you guys offer is is is money and incredibly well spent.
And then, you know, live, I would say rent in a lot of different places throughout the country. And and just try, try out as much as you can before you really make the leap. And then just make sure that you’re going to get through it.
But then with that said, I think you also should mentally commit to two years. Yeah, I think the minimum timeframe that you can even have before you can even really answer that question is two years, because if you tell yourself, oh, I’m just going to go try it out. The reality is probably, you know, think times are going to get tough and things you’re going to have challenges.
And you might if if you were not mentally prepared for that, that two year timeframe, you’re probably going to run back to the US or wherever you came from fairly quickly, because there’s stuff that you have to get used to here. And, and, and it’s difficult to see why people do things the way they do things here. And, and, and I think it just takes time to really let that culture absorb.
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah, no, I mean, I agree, like, it’s just getting to even learning back roads here, because, you know, even though ways will put you somewhere, sometimes it’s not always the best way to go, or just where to get certain food here, or how to get certain things done, like open a bank account, pay online bills, like, in the US, it’s all very easy. It’s usually in your first language as well. Here, it’s not.
I mean, it’s bureaucracy on top of bureaucracy.
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah, exactly. And there’s plenty of there’s, there’s no shortage of hurdles that will come at you in those first year or two.
[Richard Bexon]
I just like to call it a natural filter, Jake, to be honest with you, for people that shouldn’t be here, to be honest. Probably a terrible way to look at it. But like nothing is easy in this country.
But I love it, because everyone that’s here really wants to be here.
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah, it’s true. It’s true. And, and, yeah, and I think there is kind of a large crowd of people like fleeing the US right now, because they’re concerned about the political drama that’s taking place.
And, and honestly, I don’t know if those people are cut out for it to be cut. Because like, for me and my family, we were looking, like our motivation was to go to Costa Rica, not run away from the US or run away from our country. And it does kind of flip the mentality about what you’re doing.
And you have to have a strong why, why you’re doing it. And, and it doesn’t always work that well to have a negative why meaning, you know, I mean, meaning I don’t like what I had over there. So I’m going to, I’m going to leave.
Well, it helps to really be attracted to, to the country and want to be there.
[Richard Bexon]
Well, and this country culturally, politically, and even language is very different than North America. You know, I mean, it’s not that I mean, it’s a change for sure. I mean, I’m sure going to El Salvador and living would be a probably a little bit more of a change.
You know, we are somewhat aligned to the Western world. But like, I think you’d probably be looking at somewhere in Europe, if you really wanted to be a little bit more aligned where stuff’s sufficient. But then you’re in a different time zone and the other side of the world, like, you know, here, anywhere in five hours, you can be flying in North America.
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that’s true.
It does. It seems like the other world, the other side of the world, but the reality is, is you’re not that far from the US anytime that you need to run back and get something done, get something done or whatever.
Education System: Bilingual School Experience in Grecia
[Richard Bexon]
You have two children in the education system here. I mean, what I think when families move here, they’re always concerned that like, are the schools good enough? Like, I mean, how is the system here, Jake?
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah, our kids, we enrolled our kids into a bilingual school outside of Grecia called Santo Sofino or St. Josephine. And it’s been a good fit. They really have done a nice job supporting our kids, you know, learning the Spanish language, being accepting of, or at least helping the other classmates to really just help them get adjusted.
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah.
[Jake Rieke]
I don’t, I don’t know how it would have gone with the public school system. I can only speculate. But, but with it being a private school, I feel like we did get that extra attention or that extra, that extra help.
But no, the education has been good. And to be honest, like, I think what one of you know, it goes back to our strongest motivation, which is we are looking for that cultural education, just as much as, as anything else that the school could provide. So for us, like our goal is number one, that they they pick up a second language that they that they learn, that they see, you know, cultural differences and have that, that real international experience so that they’re definitely hitting our goal in that mark.
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah, I think it’s like one of those things that maybe you might not understand it right now when you’re a kid, but you’ll definitely understand it when you’re, you know, in your 20s or something, and you’ll be like, I’m very thankful for that. You know that? Yeah.
[Jake Rieke]
So yeah, yeah. And I think it’s important to build in that, that bug for adventure, like early on at a young age. And, and that’s kind of what we wanted kids to, you know, not be afraid to, to move across the world to not, you know, not to be afraid of strangers or like people or cultures that they don’t understand.
And that’s, that’s kind of what we’re, we’re after as well. Awesome.
Costa Rica Real Estate Investment Challenges
[Richard Bexon]
Well, I know that you have quite a, I’m going to change gears here to kind of more investment. I know you have quite a few investment properties up in, up in North America. How would you describe the investment market here in Costa Rica?
[Jake Rieke]
It’s, yeah, I mean, you really have to learn a lot before, before you should be, be swinging that bat for a, for a home run. You know, you really got to start small and understand the, the Costa Rican bureaucracy, understand the Costa Rican culture and, and understand how business is done here. So I think like, whereas in, in the U.S., like it’s fairly easy to get lending. You can, you know, if you can come up with 20% down, you can pretty much go to any bank you want and they’ll, they’ll put something together for you. Here in Costa Rica, lending is, is much more complicated and much higher interest, expensive. And so like when we were looking at where to purchase in Costa Rica, you know, I think a lot of people have these ideas that they’re going to house hack, right?
They’re going, you’re going to buy a property on the beach or near the beach, and then you’re going to have the guest house as your Airbnb. And that’s not a bad, it’s not a bad market, but like I think you should take a real hard skeptical look at, at what kind of revenue to expect out of that Airbnb. I think there’s the short-term rental market here is, is pretty, especially like the one, two bedroom market is, is pretty saturated, difficult to tap into.
It’s, it’s highly competitive. And we also ran numbers on, okay, what if we just buy, you know, a house, not at the beach, but just a house and then had a, you know, a one or two bedroom rental available for long-term, right? And those numbers are, are tough to pencil as well.
Like you really, you, but at any rate, all this is to say that I think, to be honest, I think you’re better off really, if you want to invest in Costa Rica, I think you’re better off giving your money to a syndication or an organization like yourself who, who kind of pools investors together and, and, and builds that property that’s, that’s incredibly desirable, that, that stands out and above and, and hits that, that, that market that is a little more difficult for people to find in terms of really that, that higher end market. Because there’s, there’s just so many properties down here that are just kind of run of the mill properties, but there’s not a ton of those, those really high end properties going after those, those high end clientele.
Manuel Antonio Investment Success and Market Saturation
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah. I mean, that’s the industry I know. So I always say, I feel like I’m cheating because I’m developing stuff for a, you know, I mean, and yeah, you know, we’re about, we’ve just finished the fourth filler in Manuel Antonio, we’re about to open five and six.
And I feel like it’s just a hotel of adding more rooms because as soon as we open it, it just floods with reservations, you know? So I’m just trying to keep my guys alive by telling them when I’m about to open it so that they know when they need to have it ready by.
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, I can tell from firsthand experience, you know, I’ve, I’ve come across a lot of your properties just searching for lodging online and they do, they stand out.
They’re just a, they’re a class in their own, they’re class above.
Final Investment Recommendation: Professional Syndication
[Richard Bexon]
Well, you know, I’ll not keep you any further Jay, because I know that you’re a busy guy, but my last question, which I love to ask is if you inherited $500,000 and you had to invest it in a business or real estate in Costa Rica, what would you invest it in and why?
[Jake Rieke]
Oh, I think I would just circle right back to my last answer. And I, to be honest, like it’s one of those things you gotta find somebody who knows the climate you have to find, I mean, the business climate, meaning you have to find somebody who’s been here a long time, who, who understands how things work here, who understands all the unwritten rules that, that we don’t always know that are not, you know, there’s no guide to these things. You kind of have to experience them and, and, and have, you know, go through it firsthand.
So to be honest, I would, I would, I would take that money and, and give it to, to an organization like yourself, Richard, I think it would, it would, it would be hard for me to do anything else because I’ve run those numbers and I’ve really thought through the process of doing it on my own and thinking, okay, how am I going to establish my own rental business here? Like, how am I going to do this? How am I going to do that?
And there’s just so many hows that like, by the time you get to the bottom, it’s like, why, why am I doing this all on my own? I think I would just yeah, trust, entrust somebody else.
[Richard Bexon]
I think the thing that people need to understand here is that the industry is driven by tourism. So you need to really understand tourism. And the goal here is you need to drive your average daily rates up way beyond, you know, what is typically in the market because, and you need to figure out ways to do that, you know, and if you don’t know how to do that, if you’re just a property management company, you don’t need closing doors.
I mean, you’re just competing with everybody else. So. Exactly.
Yeah. Yeah.
[Jake Rieke]
And, and the market is really saturated when it comes to that, like that, that middle of the road property, like there’s just a lot to choose from. Yeah. And then, and then all of a sudden you’re playing that game where you’re trying to get your listing higher on Airbnb and, and BRBO, and just to try and get your game or your, your listing in front of people’s eyes.
[Richard Bexon]
Yeah. I mean, that’s gravy for us, you know, I mean, when it comes in, it comes in, you know, like but like our stuff is direct because that’s what we’ve done a lot of, and also through luxury travel companies. So, you know, those luxury travel clients aren’t looking on Airbnb and comparing how much you’re, you know, where a three bedroom should be 600 in Mammal, Antonio, and we’re charging double that.
They’re not looking at that. They’re looking at going, what’s the experience going to be and what the service is available. And is the travel agent that’s designing this for me, like recommending this, right.
That’s really what it is. I mean, you’re getting a custom suit. Yeah.
You know, if you’re getting a custom suit, you’re not looking at like, you know, on, I don’t know, Moss Bros or whatever it is in the U S where you’re looking at me like 200 bucks. It’s like, no, you’re paying 2000, but yeah.
[Jake Rieke]
Yeah. No, a hundred percent.
[Richard Bexon]
Well, Jake, it’s been absolute pleasure having you here on the podcast. I’ll put all of the contact details in the description down below for anyone that wants to reach out and get to kind of, I suppose, know you a little bit better, but very much appreciate you taking time to chat with us on the podcast.
[Jake Rieke]
All right. Yeah. Thanks for having me, Richard.
I enjoyed it. No worries.
[Richard Bexon]
Have a good day.
[Jake Rieke]
You too.
