101 Impact global markets will have on investing in Costa Rica

[Richard Bexon]

Good afternoon Scott welcome back to the podcast.

[Scott Cutter]

That's great to be back. Great to be invited back, it's been such a successful series from you, I think I started as one of your first guests and I've become a big fan watching the podcast every week. You've had some great collaborators and colleagues and people I certainly admire and work with and so I appreciate the opportunity to come back and chat with you.

[Richard Bexon]

Not at all. When I was thinking about who I was going to have on the first episode 101, I was like well I think it's only right that I take the first podcast that I had and the guest which was you Scott and get you back on it. So I know people love to listen to you and I think you have a very unique perspective of definitely the market and also kind of a global and national market as well so it's going to be interesting.

[Scott Cutter]

Well I'm looking forward to chat with you. My wife and kids would argue that I'm nice to listen to so at least at least somebody maybe one of your listeners will help boost my ego again so I appreciate that.

[Richard Bexon]

No worries. Well Scott I think kind of the I wouldn't say the elephant in the room but I suppose is that like you know there's like there's the global slowdown happening at the moment. You know I think U.S. stocks are down around about you know 30-40 percent interest rates are starting to rise pretty drastically around the world but I mean what are you seeing on your side at the moment?

[Scott Cutter]

You know it's typical here we talk to a lot of our clients about the fact that Costa Rica tends to lag behind the United States you know they get a cold there we're starting to get the sniffles here so right now to be honest with you I think you and anybody you're talking to in the real estate world in Costa Rica it's still gangbusters here right now we are we are in a very inventory shy market there's still a lot of robust sales movement a lot of interest there that being said I'm having a lot of dialogue with sellers now going guys this is not going to last forever and and anybody that's that thinks that Costa Rica is going to be immune to some slowdown economically in the states a little bit less liquidity less easy money being made in the real estate market there that can be turned into investments here is just pulling the covers over their heads so you know I think we're on we're in our summer months right now we've still got a lot of people that made a lot of money in that last upward swing of the stock market last upward swing in the Costa Rica in the U.S. and Canadian kind of global real estate market there was a lot of wealth that was made and I think we're in a phase right now Richard where a lot of the players that knew this was coming probably saw it coming before COVID I think we probably talked about this maybe in our first podcast was that there was probably going to be an end to this upward you know financial and real estate swing in the states COVID just kind of extended that a little bit I think there's a lot of money coming to Costa Rica right now that was smart money that saw this coming that is cashing out of gains in the stock market gains in the real estate market looking for emerging markets that aren't as volatile and Costa Rica is one of those places that we don't have the big peaks we also tend to not have the big valleys and so right now we're still in that mode of a lot of capital coming year because they see you know what my money in the stock market my money in the U.S. real estate market's not going to be doing much on a two to three year cycle so this is a great time to come and invest in a place that didn't have the big peaks in the United States we have a lot of absorption we've seen some appreciation here but it's not the 30 40 percent appreciation you saw in a lot of primary U.S. markets so you know to try to be concise right now it's still very robust we have a lot of demand here right now we have a very limited supply chain but I do think that that we're we're going to start to see that dwindle as the average investor that kind of mid-level person that that may have been pulling some cheap financing out that was thinking about doing investment might be a little bit scared now anybody but the most bullish are going to start to be conservative about all their investments because of what's going on in the stock and the real estate market in the states.

[Richard Bexon]

Well I think that's a really a great summary is that again you know when they got a when they get the cold up in the U.S. we start to get the snivels down here so it's going to take a while to trickle down here I mean I think we will probably start to see it or we've already started to see it slowly here and that's only going to probably accelerate you know as that hits the U.S. but I mean one thing you know that I think that could combat that or that could you know have a positive aspect is a lot of people are looking to move out of their current country a lot of people I'm getting the sense and I have no data to back this up but everyone I speak to is saying there are more people relocating to Costa Rica now than ever before people are tired of the political situations they're tired of just everything going on globally and you know Costa Rica is a very liberal country you know that's a very where our food is fresh people just do what it is that like they want they can be themselves you know and a lot of people and it has great education so a lot of people look at that and go wow maybe I should think about moving abroad and Costa Rica's always in their top five.

[Scott Cutter]

Well there's no doubt you know one of the things that's come out of COVID is that Costa Rica's done an amazing job branding itself you know over the last 20 years no artificial ingredients, peace, happiness, stability, the important things of life, family, longevity, sustainability in every sense of the world and Costa Rica's far from a perfect place those of it have been here know and are real upfront about the fact that this isn't perfect perfect world but the brand got stronger you know and COVID made the world wake up about what's important where you live how you live you know the happiness you have and there's certainly a lot of wealthy misery around the globe right now COVID brought a lot of that to the surface and I think Costa Rica's national branding of itself globally is really going to pay dividends and I don't think about just the next year or two I think in the next 20 years we're going to see a lot of dividends being being paid you know you said I don't have any data to pass this up but I see a lot of people looking to move here first that makes what most realtors do is make make statements with no data to back it up unfortunately but I think the reality is we are seeing more and more people coming here I think that we've also seen a scenario where the first rain the first like wave of Costa Rican real estate development you know with any kind of volume was really the the 90s and early 2000s and really probably 2000 to 2007 and people were investing just to invest I mean so much of the money that was coming in was all about you can double your money you can triple your money these are the returns this current wave of investment certainly has an investment twinge to it people are making good investments here they see they can make money here but it's very different than the first you know seven to ten year wave that I experienced which was all about how much money we were telling people if you don't double your money every two or three years you're greedy or you're stupid it was it was that fast and a lot of people were investing despite not wanting to live here despite not wanting this to be primary despite the fact that it was this imperfect up and coming destination because the market was just so fast it was like people throwing money at the stock marker getting into bitcoin when it was on a big upward swing now the type of investment coming here is much more like legacy oriented family oriented use oriented and use oriented and and certainly there's big there's big groups of people moving here for full lifestyle change or buying thinking about eventually retiring here yeah but even the people that aren't going to retire here they're people that are saying this is a place that allows me to create memories with family uses a business thing it's going to be a part of my legacy portfolio and they're happy that it makes returns they're happy that it seems to be on an appreciating trajectory but they're also not going I want to sell next year or I'm looking to get out of it in two years they're looking at let me add this into my portfolio of family wealth into my legacy stuff and I'm on a 10 to 20 year cycle and it's one of the reasons why I think that we're not we're gonna have a really sustainable track here because I think because so many buyers got burned in the last peak and then kind of plateau of Costa Rican values here at least good realtors are selling with with just what the honest truth is which is this is a wonderful place to be you can usually make good or sustainable money renting if you need to and we're going to keep chugging along and next year don't expect your property to be worth twice as much as what it is today it might be if we keep going this way but people are buying for that and so that kind of end-user legacy mentality I think fits into what you're saying and there are people really buying into Costa Rica's brand and what it offers people in terms of quality of life, long-term investment, friends, family, that kind of stuff.

[Richard Bexon]

Yeah no I mean I completely agree I mean it's you know I always say to Costa Rica as I to people anyone investing here as I'm like it's a lifestyle investment that you're making here you know you'll make some returns don't expect craziness because of the access to finance is not as easy here we don't see these ups and downs but that's what makes Costa Rica such a great kind of wealth diversification plate especially outside of the U.S. you know it's it's solid you know and we're

[Scott Cutter]

seeing that I think one of the things we are having to educate we're doing a lot more education of people now because so much is tied to the interest rates in the states and people watch that when you know that when you could get funding at zero or a half a point during COVID everyone's buying real estate and destination markets and values were up 30, 40, 50 percent you know I was I was in the market to try to get home in Colorado and I'm a realtor I could I can't stomach it values are up 50, 60 percent from where they were a year or two ago and one of things we spend a lot of time educating people about and good realtors should be doing it good and bad. A is making sure people think that that speed of appreciation isn't necessarily transferable here so don't buy if you think this is is the same thing's going to happen here as happening in Vail or in Steamboat Springs during COVID time or in Houston or in Phoenix or in one of these other destination markets it tends to track up with a lot more kind of tortoise and they'll steady pace but we also let people know that they shouldn't be coming to Costa Rica thinking they're going to steal property because things slow down because we don't have that crisis mode it's mostly a cash market we have really low you know sustainable holding costs if you're not renting the holding costs compared to the states with insurance and property taxes are so low so when markets slow people tend to go okay I'll just keep it here and again we don't have the peaks we tend not to have the big valleys the biggest issue and probably the biggest thing that's favoring Costa Rica being being sustainable right now I think is twofold one because we didn't have the big peak in a surge in values big surges in absorption the absorption this year in Costa Rica is off the charts but pricing isn't going astronomically through the roof yet and when you look at Costa Rica compared to other global you know destination markets Costa Rica's still a value and you know and some of us that were here somebody talked about a lot Richard is you know people go it's expensive now but yeah it's not dirt cheap anymore but the product the caliber of the experience the kind of tourism coming that you know your experience the tourism the dollars that tourists are willing to pay and come expander they command a higher price so yes you could have bought real estate for dirt cheap here in the mid-90s but backpackers were coming looking to pay you three dollars a night to sleep in your place so it was corollary now yes homes are more expensive but when you look around Costa Rica with the exception of a couple of you know really unique micro markets top-end luxury here is still two three million bucks which is nothing compared to North America global scale of things so yes in the four seasons there's a 10 million dollar house yes there's an estate property beach front in Santa Teresa that goes at 15 million dollars but in general when I go to global real estate forums and they say Scott we want you to present on Costa Rica but the minimum price point to present our platform is three and a half million dollars half the time I'm going damn it shit what am I going to present yeah because most of the luxury project here still is a real value proposition globally and I think that's a really big benefit for Costa Rica I think sometimes talking to old school experienced people here they go they get their they're blinded by their experience because we're at the highest prices we've ever been and if you've been here for 20 years and remember land was fifty thousand dollars instead of five hundred thousand dollars it seems like wow we're at a roof point but then you look at the you know I'll tell you then you look at the caliber people coming into Costa Rica now and investing now they have higher demands higher expectations for infrastructure amenities lifestyle amenities but for those buyers it's still an infant market compared to places they're used to going in the panhandle of Florida and in Hawaii and California and the Caribbean and and it really takes people to have the right perspective and understand that we're just going into this adulthood phase in my opinion and I use that analogy a lot you know when I got here Costa Rica was an infant and it was gorgeous and totally imperfect just like an infant cried had to feed it change his diapers but you didn't care because it's just so gorgeous and untouched and raw and then we went through kind of a teenage phase where some people that send that kid off to boarding school it's it's a nightmare we're moving into an adult phase and you know when I look around I had a client that was a very wealthy client making you know big investments or seven figure investments totally in Costa Rica and he said Scott what do you think and I said you know what I want you to do I want you to go to dinner tonight and I want you to come back tomorrow and I want you to tell me what you think about there I want you to tell me about the people you saw at the dinner and he went to a restaurant he came back I said just tell me about tell me about the families you tell me about who you saw and it was no longer the European in hiking boots and a machete or the surfer dude it's dad in Tommy Bahama gear and mom in sundress kids in their polos taking selfies it's upper income world wealth that's now made Costa Rica their home place and for those investors our upper end luxury market is still a incredible value and I think that's a really important takeaway I share that with my agents and a lot of my clients we've still got so much growth left here.

[Richard Bexon]

I agree 100% and I mean even just looking at the cost of construction here comparatively you know to the rest of the world I mean it's very inexpensive here very very inexpensive.

[Scott Cutter]

I just pulled back I was getting ready to build a spec home and I stopped because it was too expensive and it was it's funny because I say these things to you and sometimes we get blind to our own advice yeah because I knew I could build at 80 bucks a foot or 100 bucks a foot a couple years ago I can't stomach building in 150 when my buddies in the states are going it's got to cost me 350 and that's for cheap middle-end middle construction and so that perspective of where we come from and where we're going is really important to keep in mind for us as professionals here and certainly for our clients as well to know where we are on that growth spectrum.

[Richard Bexon]

What do you think are going to be the products that are always going to sell Scott? I mean if anyone's listening to this looking to invest in something or to build something what do you think is the thing that's always going to sell like always?

[Scott Cutter]

Well I think it's changing but I think what what with this new wave of buyers and what I think almost kind of like a new culture of buyers coming to Costa Rica I think there's very little doubt that resort communities I think that finished US quality or international quality homes in existing destinations where they're they're highly amenitized there are activities to do there's infrastructure there's services I think that those anchors are are more secure now than ever before so when you look at places that you might think as you know we had we had this time where everyone to find the next Manuel Antonio the next Tamarindo the next Santa Teresa and I think I think that's it's it's gonna happen there will be areas that ebb and flow but I think that there's a reason why these areas are so popular and and as the as the as the the next generation of people come they're coming for the same reason some old-timers are leaving so I got buddies that have been here since the late 80s ah it's so busy ah it's so good oh there's so many people and then I got people coming in going wow I was here 20 years ago it's so nice now there's so many people there's so many diversity of activities that I could I can feel like I'm not just by myself and and I think that you know really looking at the core supply and demand dynamic if you want to know what's always going to work well the places that everyone wants to always go and be because they're Costa Rica they're authentic they're beautiful they offer gorgeous amenities gorgeous service and it's going to be different there's not a magic scenario obviously I live in Manuel Antonio so for for for me this place offers that really unique blend of jungle local a real local community with all its rough ground the edge of reality but now marinas and real luxury money and I love that duality there are other people when I've got you know with our offices up in Guanacaste in Tamarindo they really want resort living and they want that and you're seeing places like Conchal and like Pinilla and like Pacifico that are finding incredible traction now because people that are coming to Costa Rica now for the first time that don't want to be down the dirt road that don't want a mix of local and foreign they they want and earn that so that resort feel so I think when you ask about what's always going to sell is don't try to outsmart the world there's a reason supply and demand works there's a reason why these areas are the number one tourist destination or they're the number one development destination it's because if you ask 100 people 85 of them are going to go I want to do that and if you want to be the person that's trying to be on the cutting edge hitting home runs well you're going to have to go take some risks but you want to ask me where you can come to Costa Rica and you can pay what today seems to be like a high price and maybe an old timer might go I can't believe you're paying that pay it because in 15 years there's going to be a thousand more people that want it and today's incredibly high pricing is going to be the next decade's visionaries that came here before it was

[Richard Bexon]

published yeah I agree I mean I mean as the industry I mean you mentioned it there is the you know and I'll just use some data here because I remember back in 2005 our average you know sale in vacation sales was about 2200 today it's close to eight thousand dollars so that gives you an idea of just the type of client coming and their vacation's not longer it's exactly the same they're just spending four times the amount you know so as the person coming here as the destination matures the person coming here I wouldn't say matures but I think it matures in the type of traveler coming here as well which means that what they're looking for is for that that type of product that is a bit of a mature product in the area that has all those amenities you know so you only have to look at other destinations and go where have they gone to really figure out of where Costa Rica is going and like when people are like wow you really think I can get 500 bucks a night for that I'm like are you kidding me like that hotel over there is getting 1500 bucks a night you know I mean people can't believe somehow that like there are hotels in Arenal in the volcano getting in close to two thousand dollars a night you know and they're just below it just blows their mind because Costa Rica is still a young destination it's maturing but it's still young when it comes to like go to Hawaii and figure out how much the how much their vacation rental rates are and their hotel rates are it's it's crazy I think

It goes back to that same kind of thing I was talking about before you talk about maturing. We're a maturing market. We're not anywhere near a fully mature destination market.

Those are where we can be. I'm going to go, I got to go up to LA to do some stuff with my family. And you stay in a three star hotel for 250, 300 bucks a night.

You want to think anything luxury, and it's not even that luxurious. It's $1,000 a night to stay in a five star hotel in Beverly Hills or in LA or in Santa Monica in a regular season. And so I think that it's just that that maturity question is, and perspective is an important one.

And I also, and I think that you just have to remember, that's again, you have to remember looking to people that are veterans here can give you great perspective and can also give you myopic perspective. And you have to look at, and it's something, those of us that have been here for a long time, we have to constantly challenge ourselves on or is, is this the best restaurant? Cause I've been going here for 17 years and they know what I like.

And they give me my favorite drink and a little bit larger glass. Are there 15 new restaurants that I haven't gone to just because muscle memory and it has to do with food, but it has to do with real estate destinations in general. And you have to kind of sometimes step out of the forest, stop looking at the trees and look at the forest and realize that Costa Rica still has, A, I think has a lot of maturation left to do.

Again, there there's issues and infrastructure and things that need to continue to improve so that Costa Rica can blossom. And you, you start to see it. I drove up to Guanacaste a couple of weeks ago with my daughter on her 15th birthday.

And there was ridiculous traffic jams coming in out of Punta Reina to get there. And my wife was like, Scott, aren't you going to lose your head? Cause I normally would after living at the beach for 25 years.

And I was like, you know what? This traffic jam doesn't bother me because they're taking a two lane road and making it a four lane road. And yes, it's retardedly inefficient the way they're doing it.

Yes. We could build it 75 times faster in the States and a hundred million times faster if we were in Asia, but it means there's going to be four lanes and it means that we're moving in that right direction. So it's, it's some of those growing pains, just like you deal with your dad.

So, you know, you deal with your kids. You're like, God, I just want to, I just, you know what, this is good. This is good rebellion.

It's good growing pains. It's good opening the wings. And that's happened a lot all around Costa Rica.

[Richard Bexon]

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think it's, I think it's a, that's a good piece of advice.

I mean, listening to people that have been here a long time, I think it's going to give you a unique perspective, but you need to understand where that perspective is coming from. And I always tell people that I work with of like, look, there is bias in everything I say guys. So you need to understand that and where that bias is coming from.

So you need to apply your knowledge and everything else you've taken on with a knowledge of, you know, people like us and then make an informed decision. We can only give you that perspective potentially, you know, but you need to make a great example.

[Scott Cutter]

I was, I was up at Cone Chow and I got a dear buddy of mine who came down and has done well for themselves, lives in Utah. And we were in a house on the golf course. And I had, I had a old time buddy of mine that's lived here, done real estate for years.

And then my buddy was just down visiting. And I go, I got the lot two doors down from this house listed. And he goes, really?

And I go, yeah, 650 grand. And at the same moment, my longtime real estate buddy goes, God, that's expensive. And my buddy from Utah goes, wow, that's a great deal.

And they they're literally, their voices clashed in midair. And it made me look, I looked at my wife and said, this is the reality of Costa Rica right now. They're both right.

And one of the things that you should do as an investor and as a realtor here is, is we should share our insight, share our opinion, share what we thought. And then we should also sit down. And it's like I did with my client.

I said, it was, it was, it was as much, I was hoping it worked out for the sales because I'm in real estate sales. But it was as much of a sociological experiment for me to say, you know what, instead of me telling him what's going to happen in the market, let me get his unbiased perspective on where he thinks it could go and listen and learn from our clients. Because, you know, paradigm and perspective is really important in an evolutionary market.

[Richard Bexon]

Definitely, definitely. Well, I mean, what properties do you have in your portfolio at the moment, Scott, beyond the one, of course, on the golf course you just talked about that are exciting that you personally would look at investing in?

[Scott Cutter]

You know, right now it's cyclical. It's interesting because I, you know, I, I, I started real estate telling people don't buy finished houses. There were so few of them.

I'd tell them, look, yes, that's a beautiful million dollar home and it's cheap, but you can buy the lot next door for a hundred grand, build an unbelievable house, hate your builder, hate me, help your architect, spend $500,000. You'll be done with a newer house right next door with a $300,000 equity position. Don't buy finished house, even though I was going to make less money.

And then I went through a long cycle where I told people, look, I know you think you want to build and you think you're a visionary and these homes are a little bit old and the finishes aren't right, but the market doesn't, isn't going to reward you for building right now. So please consider gutting the kitchen, consider buying this. We're back in a market now because there's such little inventory.

I think that if you can find good properties in prime areas that are under their potential value, because they're old, because of the kitchen, it's so common to see people walk into investment properties and go, I don't like the color or the kitchen tile sucks. And I'm going, guys, a new kitchen's 15 grand, a new bathroom.

[Richard Bexon]

A nice new kitchen is 15 grand, a really nice.

[Scott Cutter]

And I tell them, well, in the States, it costs 50. I'm like, I'll tell you what, budget 25, pay me to do it. I'll put 10 grand in my pocket and I will put you a nice $15,000 kitchen that you'll tell me is nicer than your $50,000 kitchen in the States.

But I'm telling my clients right now, remodels. So the right location and the wrong house are great plays. I'm telling people that land and build out.

We're back in that place now where if you're willing to, and I tell my clients upfront, building is a pain in the ass. It's a pain in the ass in the States. So I'm not, I'm not telling you it's a pain in the ass in Costa Rica.

Building, designing and building anywhere is one of the most stressful things you can undertake. It's big capital. There's unknowns.

They will come out. And if you buy a lot and build in Costa Rica, there are great builders, great architects, the building quality and the amount of professional contracting firms that can really take you start to finish has gone through the roof in terms of sophistication, language ability, budgeting ability. And that's all good.

Even that being said, you can hire a great builder and they're going to be moments where you're like, I'm going to kill that realtor. I'm going to kill my architect. I'm going to kill my builder.

But we're in a market now where when you're done and you've got a big fat, beautiful equity position and a brand new home, it's amazing how quickly amnesia sets up. And there's not a lot of, there haven't been a lot of times Richard in my 27, 25, 26 years here where I've told people, build, build, build. Right now in primaries, and I'm very careful, don't think that you can go to the up and coming area and build and you're going to make money like you are in a primary.

But in the prime destination areas, if you can find land that has good clean water and title and view and you can create product, you're going to win. And I think the biggest reason is we don't have, with the exception of the mega developments of which there's still very few in Costa Rica, you know, in Cocoa.

[Richard Bexon]

There are, there are very few. There are very few.

[Scott Cutter]

So we just don't have mass product that's come to market with this huge upswing of buyers coming in. We haven't had an upswing of development and new product. In the States, you had new home builds.

You had all this stuff coming to market here. What we're doing as realtors right now, and I guarantee you can call a hundred of them. We're calling old clients.

Would you sell? You might be able to get this for your home. And we're, we're out farming listings.

And so I think that, you know, what am I looking at doing right now? Buying land and building product, because there aren't massive developments, especially in the central and South Pacific, everything's one offs. And so even if the market slows down, which I'm sure it will, it's okay, because there's not 150 new homes come to the And all we really need to see is 10 buyers every month.

And this market's going to keep it at space because we just don't have new products. So I think that if you're open to building, if you're open to remodeling, you can find some really good opportunities because of that, that buyer that's coming in now that's willing to pay the high price for yesterday, but the low price for tomorrow. The one thing that's really important to note is most of them don't want the headache of a bill.

Most of them don't want the headache of a remodel. They come in with a bigger pocket book, just like your clients that are now spending 8,000 on a travel package instead of two. The guy spending two and the hot water wasn't perfect.

The wifi was slow. They wrote you a note saying, yeah, it was kind of shitty, but we still had a great time because we saw the monkeys. The guy writing the $8,000 check is calling your travel advisor going, the hot water's not on.

I want somebody here now. And they don't want to deal with the idiosyncratic. And the same thing's true in real estate.

So if you can fill that void and be the person that says, you know what? I know what they want. And I see potential here.

I think there's great opportunity in building and remodeling. If you're willing to put that work in.

[Richard Bexon]

I agree. I'm actually about to start to build myself. So this should be interesting.

So I built, I built via went on the many years back and that was a bit of a nightmare, but I learned a lot from it, you know, but you're going to make money.

[Scott Cutter]

And so again, process, you remember what I'm saying?

[Richard Bexon]

I know it's like a kid, dude. Like you have one kid and then you're like, I'm never doing this again. And then two years later, you're like, oh, you know what?

Let's have another one.

[Scott Cutter]

Well, and then you raise them and there's moments, like I said, you're like, go outside. I'm done with you. And I got teenagers now.

And there's times where you're like, really, this is what I made. And then they do something and they demonstrate that they're now a mature adult human being. And you drop to the floor in tears and you go, what do you mean?

I wanted to kill her last week, honey. I'm the most proud dad in the world.

[Richard Bexon]

Yeah. I know you, I mean, I must say, congratulations, dude. You've done great work.

And, and yeah, I mean, it's, I mean, again, I think you've mentioned you've had one daughter that's at Oxford and then, you know, the other one's 750. I mean, it's congratulations.

[Scott Cutter]

I tell you what, we get a lot of families thinking about bringing kids down here. It's another, you know, we're not talking about real estate, but the reality is raising kids in an alternative destination meant real sacrifice. And a lot of people ask about kids, what about the education?

We didn't have big private schools, didn't have fancy dancy stuff, had to do augment education in-house, our family spending time together. But, you know, now when I see, you know, my 15, 18 year old kids that go to some of these prestigious institutions surrounded by kids that were, that were, you know, born and raised in the lap of luxury and are treating maids and staff like servants and are classist and don't have a good global view. And you see good human beings who are going, I make my bed and I help the maid take the trash out.

How could you not do that? And I think it goes back to that brand and what's good about Costa Rica. And I think what resonates so much with these people is there's so much tension in the United States and in Europe, socially, class, business, politically.

And so to come to a place where, and again, I'll talk about it, but to come to a place in a country where rich and poor tend to blend together easier, especially where I live in Mayo Antonio, the draw of it, you know, my guys that bring over these, you know, multimillion dollar boats that a lot of them are looking at, should I be in a big resort community? And I, I love Los Sueños, I sell a lot of real estate there. There's people that want to be in that resort community that gives you the resort amenities, the golf course, et cetera.

But I'm amazed at the amount of high net worth families who want to be more off grid or more integrated into a real local economy. Even though that means I got to go down that shitty bumpy road, or I got to live in this town that's got it, but it's, it's amazing to see. And I asked them, why do you pick this area?

And they go, I picked it because it wasn't perfect. And I've, I've, I've lived 20, 30 years in a gated community with perfectly landscape yards and a thousand rules to make everything perfectly landscape. And the authenticity of what Costa Rica is offering people is really infectious.

And, you know, bringing it back to my kids, raising kids and you're a dad as well, raising kids in this environment where they're going to be exposed to both really global, amazing international development and wealth and, and the diversity of, of financial planning, et cetera, but also running out and picking mangoes off the tree and, you know, eating rice and beans in the local soda that duality, I think makes them better humans.

And I think more and more people are wanting to have a taste of that in their own lives with their own wives and kids and grandparents and grandkids.

[Richard Bexon]

I agree. I agree. Well, my last question for you, Scott, as I'll not keep you too much longer, if you inherited $500,000 and had to invest into a business or real estate in Costa Rica, what would you invest it in?

[Scott Cutter]

There's no doubt. I'd be buying vacation rental properties in Costa Rica. They are, if you buy in the right, in the right area.

And I think there are multiple right areas. I don't think that means anywhere, but I think if you buy on these existing high def high destination, pure supply and demand markets, they provide three really key elements. One, it's a great place for you and your friends and family to enjoy.

So investing a half a million dollars in quality of life, legacy, family, lifestyle, business associates, friends is a great investment, but those investments also provide really great, sustainable, if not profitable ROI. So people are looking to put money in stock portfolios and retirement funds. If you can invest in a place that you can use, enjoy, create memories and improve your quality of life and make a return on that investment, whether it's one, two, three, five, in some great cases in Costa Rica, there's opportunities are doing six to 10%, but whether it's low return or high return, it's still providing you that family, that lifestyle, that, that quality of life investment.

It's going to provide you sustainable, if not really profitable returns, depending on where you are. And they're going to appreciate slowly steadily, but I don't think that there's many opportunities for investment in the world that check those three categories.

[Richard Bexon]

Yeah, I agree.

[Scott Cutter]

Get rich in the stock market, but you ain't, you ain't walking with your grandkids down wall street, you know, whistling together, talking about your stock portfolio. And so to find something that can give those three things to you, add years to your life, quality of life, that can create some sustainable in the worst case scenario and lucrative in the best case scenario, rental returns and appreciate an up and coming market. I'm surprised we don't have more people flocking to our doors here, but I'm going to keep banging the drums.

[Richard Bexon]

Yeah, no, definitely. Well, Scott, again, really appreciate you taking the time. I know you're one of the busiest guys out there.

It's been an absolute pleasure. And I'm sure that we'll get you on later on in the podcast. 201, man.

I'll talk to you soon. 

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