Buyer representation · Guanacaste

I work for the buyer. Nobody else pays me to say what I say.

Costa Rica does not regulate real estate agents. There is no licence you must hold, no board that can strike you off, and no supervisor checking what you were told before you wired the money. This page explains exactly what I do about that, how I am paid, and where my incentives sit.

Start here if you are still reading. Writing in June 2026, a Costa Rican corporate real-estate lawyer set out the position plainly: there is no commercial rule establishing minimum training requirements for private real-estate brokers, and the only oversight that exists comes from the financial regulator, aimed at money-laundering prevention rather than professional standards. That is the market you are buying in. Everything below is my answer to it.

What I actually do

I represent the buyer, not the seller. That means I am on one side of the table for the whole transaction: helping you rule out the wrong zone before you fall in love with a view, pushing the verification that decides whether a property is what it claims to be, and telling you plainly when the answer is to walk away. I do not list properties for sellers in the same transaction.

Most of what goes wrong for a foreign buyer in Guanacaste is not fraud. It is a lot that cannot legally get a water letter. A concession mistaken for title. A construction value that quietly crosses a tax threshold nobody mentioned. A land-use certificate that came back saying something different from what was asked.

Those are all knowable before you sign. They are simply not knowable by looking at the property, and nobody in the transaction is obliged to find them for you.

And what I do not do

• I am not your attorney and not a notary. I do not perform the legal due diligence and I do not authorise the deed. I coordinate that work, I push it, and I tell you what it should cover.
• I do not decide who your lawyer is. See below. That decision has to be yours for it to protect you.
• I do not promise returns, appreciation or rental yield. If you have seen a projected yield for a Guanacaste property, ask for twenty-four months of actual booking and payout statements. I will help you read them.
• I do not tell you a property is fine because the closing is booked. The transactions I want are the ones that still look right to you in three years.

How the money works, stated in full

In Costa Rica the seller pays the commission and it is normally split between the listing agent and the buyer's agent. So in most transactions I am paid out of the seller's side and you pay me nothing directly. That is the market standard, and it also creates a conflict that I would rather name than hide: I am paid only if you buy, and paid more if you buy something expensive.

The structure is not a secret. The Costa Rica Global Association of REALTORS states that commissions may range from 3% to 10% of the sale price and that, unless the buyer agrees to split the costs, the seller is legally responsible for paying the entire real estate commission. Brokerages here commonly quote 5% to 8%, split between the two sides.

Here is the conflict, said out loud. Every buyer-side agent in this country, me included, is normally paid at closing out of the seller’s proceeds. That means the person advising you not to buy is the person who gets nothing if you do not. You should weigh that. You should weigh it with every agent you speak to, and you should notice which ones bring it up first.

So here is the alternative, if you want the conflict gone

The first conversation is free, always. After that you choose one of two ways to work:

Two ways to work together

	Standard	Advisory retainer
Who pays me	The seller, at closing	You, directly
What it costs you	Nothing directly	A fee agreed in advance
What I do	Full buyer representation	The same work, without a stake in the outcome
My incentive	I am paid if you buy	I am paid whether or not you buy
If you then buy	—	The retainer is credited against my commission

Most buyers take the standard route, because it is what the market is built around and it costs them nothing. The retainer exists for the buyer who reads the paragraph above and decides they would rather remove the incentive entirely. Both are legitimate. I will tell you which I think fits your situation, and I will not pretend that is a neutral opinion.

The process, in the order it actually happens

Zone before property, always. Then the property itself, then a written option period with the verification conditions in it, then the four layers of due diligence, then closing, then the protection that matters after you own it. Most buyers arrive having already chosen a beach, which is the reverse of this order and the expensive way round.

Three things I commit to, that you can check yourself

Verifiable commitments, not adjectives. You get the notary's name early enough to look them up on the public register. You get the commission structure in writing before we start, including what I receive. And you get the alert service configured on your property at closing, whether or not you remember to ask for it.

• The notary’s name, in advance. Early enough that you can run it through the public lookup yourself. Not at the table.
• The commission structure in writing, before we begin. Who pays what, and what reaches me. If you would rather remove that incentive, the retainer above exists for exactly that.
• Alerta Registral configured at closing. Not recommended. Configured, with you, before we are done.

Why these three and not a list of promises. Because you can verify all three without trusting me. The public notary lookup is free and public. The commission structure is a document you hold. The alert either arrives in your inbox or it does not. In an unregulated market, the only claims worth making are the ones a stranger can check.

Who I am, and what I am not

Costa Rican engineer, CELAFI-certified, based in Liberia, working with international buyers in Guanacaste. I am building this practice rather than trading on twenty years of it, and I would rather tell you that than imply otherwise. What I offer instead of a long track record is that everything I publish is sourced, and everything I claim here is something you can verify.

The blog is the evidence, and it is deliberately public. Every legal claim in it links to the statute, the regulation or the institution it comes from, every figure carries the body that published it, and each article ends with a section listing what we could not verify. Start with the anchor guide if you want to judge the work before you judge the person.

If you would rather read about me than about the process, the about page is here. If you want to see what is currently on the market, the listings are here — though I will work with you on any property, not only those.

Not ready to talk? That is fine, and it is why the blog exists. The due diligence checklist is the same one I work from, published in full. The cost-of-living guide is what people actually spend here. Use them without me if you like — they are more useful than a sales call.

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My Guanacaste Real Estate is a CELAFI-certified buyer advisory based in Liberia, Guanacaste. We represent buyers — your Buyer Protector in Costa Rica.

Contact · About · Listings · info@myguanacasterealestate.com · +506 8886 7358

This page describes a real estate advisory service. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and nothing here is a promise of any financial outcome. Commission ranges are as published by the Costa Rica Global Association of REALTORS and by brokerages in this market; the specific structure for your transaction is agreed in writing before work begins. Engage a licensed Costa Rican attorney, independent of the seller and independent of me, for any specific property. Last reviewed August 2026.