9 More Sales at El Dorado

» NOTES

When I started Residencias Los Jardines, I started writing a weekly news letter —determined to tell all the good, bad, and the ugly. I knew some readers would be interested in the construction process. I expected others might be interested in the lifestyle of two people who had decided to live outside the box. For others, the adventures of lita, the parrot and the cat took on an entertainment saga all its own.

Residencias Los Jardines is finished. We periodically have resales and rental availabilty. Some readers may be interested in this information.

More and more, the content will be dominated by events of our new project, "El Dorado" for short. While the future is always uncertain, I again aim to tell it like it happens —the good, the bad, and the ugly, and that is what follows.

In an effort to make the format more interesting and visually appealing and to field inquiries re. El Dorado, the news letter is now being distributed by Jan Kozak, Marketing Manager, Hacienda El Dorado. I will remain the author.

» MARKETING, WEBSITE & SALES

Marketing: We will attend a trade show this week—The Americas Real Estate Expo-- at the Ramada Herradura Hotel. This will be our first experience;  we'll see how it goes.  A review of most of the exhibitors indicate they are marketing beach properties; we're likely to be the only exhibitor for the Central Valley. We are told that lots of visitors will be coming from other parts of Central and South America as well as the US. We have a simple but very elegant booth; others have very elaborate displays. We'll see what happens.

Website: We have a new company but not much has been done yet on the outstanding features.

Sales: We are working on completing nine (9) sales this week.  Not all the money is in nor all the contracts signed both ways, but we expect to complete all we are currently working on.  This brings us to a total sales of 41.  We are expecting the final count of  doors to be around 110 of which Paul and I will probably hold on to 15 units.  That being the case we are effectively 43% sold out.

Note: People ask me if our sales are on target. Since I have no target/time scenario—I  don't know how one does this if they have little control over the event--.  We have decided on a marketing campaign which seems to be working. We don't have any reliable benchmark to compare our progress to. We continue to have a number of multiple sales and all from N. Americans. We still haven't been able to break into the Tico market—this is a personal disappointment.

Meeting with the Mayor of Santa Ana: We met with the mayor of Santa Ana and presented our project to him.  While he seemed pleased with all of it, he was particularly interested in our protection of the stream and how we were planning on cleaning it up.  When we described our plan, he was very pleased and commented that he was interested in working to clean up the headwaters as well. The second area of major interest to him was our social responsibility program. We explained that the $10,000 per year we expect will be designated for health, education, and safety/security issues in the immediate community. We said we would work with his office and local community representatives to identify where and how we can make a difference.

» CONSTRUCTION LOG

Architect:

Entrance: I've asked the architect to work on a specific design and rendering for the entrance.  We won't be building it until some time later but we need to know the design so we can know the measurements so we can terminate the fence and make space for the various connections (electrical and telecommunications) and functions that this area will have to accommodate.

Building 19: I've also given him my vision of what we could build in this area and asked to produce a preliminary design. This is an unusual area in that my vision has parking on the roof of what will be a two story cascading down building…
 
Wall: (Same as last week) We continue plodding along on this.  We have to get one electrical pole moved and ICE should move another pole which now is prominently standing in the middle of the street and very vulnerable.

» RESIDENCIAS LOS JARDINES

For Sale: Nothing available at the moment. I had expected that two units would come on the market in January but they didn't.  We continue to await word.

For Lease:

Unit 113—UNFURNISHED (kitchen appliances are included) 2 bedroom / 2 bathroom, 1,300 sf,  open concept kitchen/LR/DR with wall unit.  Granite kitchen counters and bathroom vanities; vaulted ceilings, ceramic tile floors,   outside covered terrace, etc. CLEAN –$1,000 mo.

Dust: The developers to our east have been creating havoc for us—first they tore up the street and it became a dust bowl and then they started moving top soil for their development.  We're down wind from them so for the past 6 weeks we've suffered—and still are.  They did, however, cover the street with the first layer of asphalt—that helps but..

» NEWS FROM COSTA RICA

If your browser does not support the hyperlinks below, you can view the COSTA RICA NEWS section on our website from the following URL:

https://www.eldoradocostarica.com/English/News/index.php

There are also new articles posted in Spanish on the following URL:

https://www.eldoradocostarica.com/Spanish/News/index.php

February 09, 2008
War of the Supermarkets includes Costa Rican Chains
(Costa Rica News) Yesterday 16 regional supermarket chains, two of them Costa Rican, signed an agreement in El Salvador to unite forces and be more competitive against the retail giant Wal-Mart. The regional organization will be called Super Markets of Ce
Read

February 09, 2008
First Chinese Film Festival in Costa Rica This Weekend
(Costa Rica News) The first ever Chinese Film Festival, which will take place this weekend from Feb. 8 to Feb. 10, will feature three full-length Chinese films, each with three separate viewing times. All will be shown at the Cinépolis Terramall movie the
Read

February 06, 2008
U.S. ex-pats in Costa Rica make history in first global primary
U.S. ex-pats trickled into a hotel room on Parque Morazán yesterday to vote in a historic global primary to help decide the Democratic Party's 2008 nominee for U.S. president.
Read

February 06, 2008
Costa Rica establishes diplomatic relations with Palestinian 'state'
Costa Rica took a bold step into the tumultuous Mideast politics yesterday, announcing it recognizes Palestinian statehood and announces a bilateral accord with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) to "strengthen" the governments' diplomatic relatio
Read

February 06, 2008
International Texting from Costa Rica
The Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), the state run monopoly for the telecommunications market, have now announced contracts with bigger mobile networks outside of Costa Rica that will mean that text messages can be sent to and from those countr
Read

February 05, 2008
Colombia, Costa Rica 'top ten' for environment
Colombia and Costa Rica are among the top ten nations in a ranking of excellence in environmental performance.
Read

February 05, 2008
Costa Rica’s Sex Tax eliminated
Posted by Paul Smith (CostaRicaNews) The Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) has eliminated the 3% tax that they had been charging motels on top of the 16.39% hotels tax.
Read

February 05, 2008
IHG Opens the First Crowne Plaza(R) in Costa Rica
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) (LSE:IHG) (NYSE:IHG) (ADRs), one of the world’s largest hotel groups by number of rooms, today announced the opening of the Crowne Plaza® Corobici San Jose Costa Rica.
Read

February 04, 2008
Costa Rica joins in worldwide call for FARC's farewell to arms
Colombians are set to march today in San José as part of a worldwide protest, "One Million Voices Against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC)," which is meant to call for the leftist rebel army to lay down its weapons and release its hosta
Read

» OUR LIVES

Weather: Normal breezes and sunny skies.  It's wonderful.

I've been crippled up with a bad back for the past two weeks. Too  many long hours hunched over a computer is probably the culprit.

Brian, Lita, Hugo, irreverent Vicka, the pigeon toed parrot, and the newbies— Chico and Chica.