Buying land in Costa Rica Greater Metropolitan Area, forty districts later

The errand had a plain name: buying land in Costa Rica Greater Metropolitan Area. It was not a Sunday whim. It was one of the largest decisions we were going to make. Where to live, how much to owe, how far a normal day would stretch.

We went to see it on the ground, not on a map. About forty districts in the GAM. In most of them we showed up twice. A weekday morning, or a Saturday with better light. We walked the lot, looked at the street, asked one question, and left with an impression written down as if it were a measurement.

It was not.

What a visit can actually tell you

It can tell you whether the soil is soft that day. Whether the street is loud. Whether you like the place or it makes you uneasy. That last part matters. Nobody should buy a lot they dislike just because a number looks tidy.

A visit can also fool you. If we arrived already in love with the view, the puddle at the back became a detail. If the price scared us, even the tree looked suspicious. A visit confirms what you brought with you just as easily as it informs you.

What two visits cannot show

They do not say whether that price is high for the district, or whether the listing next door is inflated. They do not say how the area has moved. They do not say how this district compares with the one we saw on Thursday, beyond the feeling still sitting in the car.

Two afternoons are not a sample. They are two afternoons. Comparing districts that way means comparing memories, and memories sort themselves by what we liked, not by what matters in a decision this size.

We needed objective information. Not so someone else would choose for us, but so we would stop deciding from the notebook in the glove compartment.

What Propiedatos is

That search is where Propiedatos came from. We want buying land to stop depending on two afternoons and a notebook. We help people look at the same lot with information they can compare: price per square meter against the area, how that area has been moving, district safety, services, and the risks a Saturday does not show.

We do not sell lots. We are not a listings portal or an agency, and we do not take a commission on a sale. The decision stays with the buyer. We put the data in order so that decision is not made blind. The longer version is on our about page.

What the next posts will show

Starting with the next article, we are going to show findings. Not long advice pieces. Lists, the kind you stop to read:

• Did you know the price gap between the most expensive district and the cheapest one?
• The most expensive districts for buying land, and the cheapest ones.
• The signs that a listing is inflated, and what a Saturday visit does not show.

Those findings come from listings with a price recorded in the last year, not from the memory of a drive. When we name a district, it will be because the calculation supports it. Here we only wanted to say why we started, and to tell you that what comes next is the data.