The Pacific beach area seems to be getting the same kind of mass marketing of real estate experienced in the past by Arizona, Vail, Colo., Las Vegas, Nev., and even Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. A phone room in Florida is inviting North Americans to visit Costa Rica and to consider the area as an investment and/or retirement. Internet marketeers also are bombing the public with colorful photos of Costa Rica. One offer arrived in electronic mailboxes here Sunday titled "Ocean View Properties Available in Costa Rica." The curious aspect of the mailing Sunday was that it did not carry a name of a company, just the name of the marketing firm, Performance Offers Network of Boca Raton, Fla. The Internet promotion tends to simplify the daily frustrations that expats here face: "Our company sells individual corporations (S.A.) which has as its asset raw land in proximity to growth areas. The format is a Costa Rican corporation. You have the ability, as property values increase to subdivide land into 1/4 acre sites. Thus realizing gain for the sale of a home site. Improved property sells for higher prices because the improvements inherently increase the value." The e-mailing also says: • water supply is abundant Residents here know that there is a big, expensive gap between having services available down the road instead of at the property line. The company says that acre lots are available for $19,500. The e-mail seeks contact data. The Internet mail uses many of the same graphics as a Web site for Paragon Properties of Costa Rica S.A. Paragon has been the subject of a number of messages and telephone calls to A.M. Costa Rica by would-be investors and retirees. However, Paragon officials have not returned repeated messages left by reporters. A reporter visited the office listed by Paragon in The Forum office park in Santa Ana Monday only to have an employee there say Paragon is not a tenant. Office workers at Paramount International in the same building referred the reporter to a telephone number said to be in Parrita. Just south of Parrita is the site where the company says on its Web page that it has land for sale. Those North Americans who called the newspaper were concerned because Paragon wants them to post earnest money before offering them a free trip to Costa Rica. Paragon is a registered Costa Rican corporation. |
The Paragon Web name and site was registered May 18 for a year by Hostarica, S.A., a Web hosting company in the Central Valley. The Web page is linked to that of the government’s Consejo Nacional de Concensiones and its summary of the proposed San José - Caldera highway. Neither Web page mentions the troubles getting a concessionaire to build the two-lane highway. The Paragon Web page shows three stages of the project. Stage one (about 140 lots) and stage two (about 84 lots) are sold out, the Web page says. Stage three shows 162 lots with just one small green area. There is no mention of sewers, utility easements, drainage or how the subdivision would be governed if the lots are built out or left vacant. The Web site contains a link to a 12-page electronic brochure. In it, a person who identifies himself as Inri Robles Kelly, a fifth generation Costa Rican, says that a million Americans have relocated to Costa Rica. The country only has a population of a little more than 4 million. The brochure is heavy on photos and upbeat descriptions of Costa Rica. There is little information about the land being sold. A question section contains these answers that appear to be evasive: "What about public utilities? Water, electric and telephone service are available throughout all the cities in Costa Rica." "How long has Paragon been in business? Inri Robles and his family have been involved in Costa Rican real estate for over 50 years." There are aspects the brochure and the Web page do not mention. To live in a house in Parrita, a homeowner would have to have the legal right to be in the country. That can be a difficult task, as every pensionado and rentista knows. Paragon was registered as a sociedad anonima or corporation, according to the Registro Nacional. And there have been no reports of unhappy visitors who could not get back the money they posted with the firm. Mass marketing of raw land, condos and time shares elsewhere have had mixed results. Some high pressure Arizona operations ended up on "60 Minutes," the CBS investigative television show. Elsewhere owners have experienced satisfactory appreciation, although most real estate professionals would agree that success depends on the quality of the development and management company. Local real estate agents have mixed feelings about the mass marketing. Some think that promotion of Costa Rica will stimulate their business. Others fear lot buyers will be disappointed if they try to build under the uncertain Costa Rican bureaucracy. |