Homes for sale and homes for rent in Santa Ana, San José, Costa Rica | Newsletters

Sales: None this week

Permit Applications: Waiting--SETENA--D1--we wait and that will probably be the story until the end of January. 

Construction: We are still waiting for the detailed design of the retaining wall / back wall of the Maya Tower. However, the consultant has submitted to the various agencies, sufficient information which, if approved, would allow a decision to be made for us to proceed to install a number of things. We are waiting for the results of that request.

Water: We are advised that the process is the following: A request is made to the head office of AyA (we did this Nov. 4 and they lost the request twice). From there, it is sent to a regional office (Santa Ana) where it is reviewed and ?????? and then sent back to the head office which then sends it to the Municipal office. This is December. Virtually nothing gets done in government from mid December to mid January.  We wait.

Municipal Roadway: I understand that the City has said, in effect, when it collapses, we'll fix it. 

Website Upgrade / Marketing: Photos of Residencias Los Jardines, the Santa Ana area and some of the houses are available on line at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/gardenresidencesresort

Internet Woes:  Where to start this story? For three plus months, we have had very poor service from CableTica. Their standard response when we contacted them was to deny culpability. After exhausting all options, we decided to switch to AMNET when they became operational in our area. This was scheduled for a Saturday (they didn't show) and came Tuesday when I wasn't here. The service was supposed to be hooked to the office router for use by all houses. It wasn't; only to the office computer. (I didn't know this)  When I returned from Nicaragua, I received many a hoisted glass for such great service to which I credited AMNET. This week one of our wireless access points crapped out. The repair person came and replaced it. In that conversation, I learned that we still had CableTica for the site and AMNET was only servicing the office. After this shock I had to ask why then, had the CableTica service been so great this past week. Answer--they did something to upgrade their service--perhaps kicked in some amplifiers or ?????? Regardless, I was so angry at them, I just wanted them out of my sight so on Thursday night, we took the equipment out of service to switch the site service over to AMNET. Friday morning was filled with complaints. It seems that we had gone back a step--AMNET was not performing as well as CableTica had the week before--our VOIP phones were unreliable and the speed was noticeably slower. As of now, we are monitoring AMNET performance on an hourly basis.  We have a meeting scheduled to possibly return to CableTica on Tuesday night if the AMNET service doesn't improve.

New Property Tax Law: We reviewed the law as written; the implementation rules and regulations are not yet written. Based on the way we read it and based on the information which is on file with the Municipal office, we feel the new property tax surcharge will not apply to us. We believe the tax authority will view us as 29 individual homes and evaluate accordingly vs. as one structure.

De-registration with IRS Costa Rica: This is great. Doneste S.A. owns the land and all the improvements at Residencias Los Jardines. A property management company, Residencias Property Management S.A. administers all the houses and remits to Doneste S.A. any surpluses. (So far there hasn't been any as our goal is to just break even on an operating basis (depreciation always takes us into a loss).  Doneste really has no commercial activity (it's really a holding company) and for tax purposes, it is an inactive company. We de-registered it from the IRS--Costa Rica. We do not now have to file any report with them. We will still have financial statements as the property management company needs to report the the shareholders of Doneste.
 
Shareholders Meeting: The info. was sent out to all shareholders. It will be held Dec. 13 at 1pm.

Total Area (Sq Ft): 1716
Total area (Sq M): 158
Bedrooms: 2
Bathrooms: 2.5
Floor(s): 2 Story
Type: Detached
Furnished: Yes
 

This 1,716 sf. (plus parking for one car) two story, detached house, with three terraces, two bedrooms (one on each floor) and upstairs master suite is a beautiful home. This home consists of two VERY large bedrooms (one on each floor) with en-suite bathrooms and a powder room, each with large closets with extensive built-ins for personal organization. The vaulted living room and ground floor bedroom ceilings as well as the master bedroom on the 2nd floor, provide a feeling of grandeur while allowing the warmer air to rise and exit through the ceiling ventilating system. There are three TVs (one in each bedroom and one in the living room.) This is a beautiful home. There is a rough-in for a dishwasher in the kitchen area.







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