Why it is so easy - Our People

Robert Shannon, designs all the marketing strategies to identify people from afar that have a serious interest in retiring, relocating or investing in Costa Rica. Once the client is in contact with us, he carefully profiles them, identifies lifestyle, personal needs and budget. From this he identifies the areas and product best suited to them, polls all associates for product in the area of interest and sets up an itinerary for a thorough Lifestyle Property Tour. He is in constant contact with all clients in country and assists in the offer, guiding the client in how to take title and closing. His services go far beyond that and too numerous to mention here. Be assured you are in good hands and he does everything in his power to make newcomers to Costa Rica buy only in the path of growth and development and to do it easily and securely.

Christopher Howard is retained by our company to be present for clients who wish orientation. He has been a resident in Costa Rica for 25 years. His knowledge of Costa Rica is a most valuable asset to our clients. Most people that arrive to Costa Rica for retirement, investment or relocation, have already read his best selling, most popular in Costa Rica, THE GOLDEN DOOR TO RETIRING AND LIVING IN COSTA RICA. He has written for National Geographic along with a number of notable publications. He speaks Spanish fluently and even has anew Spanish book that is worth a look because of the way he dishes it up. Chris is one of the most sought after people in Costa Rica when people from abroad seek CR information. We are most honored to have him consult to our program.

Karla Shannon the hostess with the mostest. A terribly infectious smile and personality. She is totally sincere and will be there for everyone and make you feel you want to live in Costa Rica immediately.

Karla will take you to the shops that most tourists and even a lot of residents don't know much about where you can experience the economic benefits of Costa Rica. She is very refreshing to be around. Be careful as she will be practicing her English on you and you may have to listen a little more intently as the Spanish enunciation is still apparent.

When you write for testimonials, just ask about Karla and see what you get.

Kathia Shannon is our work in progress. She is 23 years of age and studying law here in Costa Rica. Her desire is to be fully qualified in Law, Marketing and Economics relative to Costa Rica and real estate.

Currently, she manages the listings and is studying all the properties in our data base to familiarize with the markets we serve.

She is an A plus student and speaks English. Even part time, she is a real asset to our team and we expect to grow significantly with her input down the road.

If you have a listing you wish to put up with us, feel free to call her a 2293 2446 and she will handle it for you if it meets our criteria.

Carol ODonnell, She discovered Costa Rica when she came to Costa Rica to explore nature with her son. One of Carol's trips to CR was with a Christopher Howard Tour when she found herself comparing notes with our southern office people. After a short time, she realized she was a perfect fit for our organization and decided to come on board.

Her varied background ranged from entrepreneur, aviation and real estate. Her high energy and client satisfaction attitude made us realize that she was what we needed to round out Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties assets.

We decided it was necessary to open an office in the very popular and hot central Pacific area of Jaco and Hermosa and Esterillos. After a short training bout in our southern office, Carol became our obvious choice for that position. In the time we have had Carol with us, her client satisfaction rate has exceeded all expectations. Her understanding of our commitment to Client care and excellence has made her an immediate asset to our marketing program.

Once you meet her, you will understand our pride in having her as our marketing director of the central Pacific area of Costa Rica.

Steve Martinez
Marketing associate, central valley area of San Jose

Steve is a native Costa Rican with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration. He graduated from Universidad Hispanoamericana university. His background includes a number of customer service positions. He has worked in international sales, customer satisfaction surveys, business administration, publicity and editorial. This experience has given him a good grounding for Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties as our business is very client oriented.

He is perfectly fluent in English and Spanish.

Steve will form part of our Central Valley, San Jose area marketing and is specializing in our lifestyle Property Tours. His puts special emphasis on profiling clients, selection of properties to view, detailing their itineraries and choice of extra activities for familiarization to Costa Rica.

We are pleased to have Steve and he will serve you well.

William Morales handles all webmaster responsibilities as well as technical support. He has a wide background in web design and marketing and is one of our most valuable assets to the marketing effort.

Andres Zamora is independent and is one of our prized associates in the central valley of Costa Rica. His background not only is varied but very impressive and important to quality Real Estate marketing. We have many ongoing projects in which share marketing and sales efforts and we work very closely with his office. Our large database of property listings coupled with his nicely facilitates our Lifestyle Property Tours.

Andres is a Member of the of the Costa Rican National Association of Realtors, (NAR- US), as a Certified International Property Specialist as well as of the Costa Rica Real Estate Brokers Board where also he was instrumental in the formation of the Ethics Committee.

His background in banking and business consulting due to his formal business management studies and the fact of been a certified accountant have given him the position to write for the number one website of the world. www.realtor.com the Costa Rica Country Profile.

Also he is one of the approved realtors for the U.S. Commercial Service and also has been the first speaker in an International Remax Convention for Costa Rica real estate issues. Andres also has been selected and interviewed by Channel 7 Costa Rica for the special report on Real Estate “Metros de Oro” and for the NBC UNIVERSAL AND CNBC on the latest special on Economy Trends on Real Estate. Foreign markets investments in Real Estate: Costa Rica.

Joseph Gimenez is our newest addition. He is native to Puerto Rico, long time resident of Costa Rica. He is well traveled and fits well in our client services program that we like to include in the retirement and relocation end of the business. Joe speaks four languages and worked in the USA for many years. He is now retired but teaches new residents who are relocating to Costa Rica.

You will find him a most accommodating gentleman in every way including the cost. He will travel to your home (within limits) and in one month you will be pleasantly surprised at your progress in speaking Spanish. If you wish, you may write directly to Joe here josegbianco@yahoo.com.es or call him atTelephone (506) 8845-8539

Miguel Guardia Miguel is a native Costa Rican residing in Limon. He has a vast knowledge of the area and rules of constructions and development. His local knowledge has been invaluable in finding value properties.

Miguel is always right on top of all the new developments surrounding the new Marina and port growth that has resulted from the Atlantic coast popularity for 235 Cruise ship arrivals annually.

We anticipate tremendous growth in the next five years throughout this area. Considering Miguel's experience, we are both very lucky and pleased to have Miguel on our team to serve this area and identify viable properties.

Gustavo Odio is a fully experienced and qualified Real Estate professional with many years of business background. He is native Costa Rican. His family is very prominent in the Construction industry which also affords him a very good insight into today's markets and what is selling.

His background with us in large and small development properties is a great asset to investors wanting to develop projects. The process can be painful without his type of expertise. He is very valuable to our group because of his connections to quality developers offering projects that are marketable in this economy.

His love for meeting new people and relocating them comfortably in Costa Rica is a large asset for our Retirement market as well.

We are pleased an fortunate that he is part of our team

Mike Paulin is from France and is a long time resident of San Ramon and intimate with the area. His background is that of an international Chef. He is well travelled and chose Costa Rica for it's beauty, friendly people and comfortable cost of living for his early retirement years.

His activities in Costa Rica include working with indigenous people here to assist them in their lifestyle. Recently he decided to take advantage of his many languages and experience with people of all walks of life. He felt his investigation process and choice of Costa Rica as a retirement destination could serve him well with our firm.

Further, he is a dyed in the wool San Ramonian and can be very informative for people seeking a rural lifestyle in an area that has many amenities for a great and comfortable life. Michel rounds us out nicely and we are very pleased to have a person of his caliber with our team.

Brenda Bombard

Brenda relocated from California in 1998 with her family, She made Nosara their permanent home. She has more than 12 years of experience and active participation in native-animal protection, resort management, real estate and property management in the Nosara are. Brenda’s warm and helpful personality will help you relax and feel right at home as you work together to find the perfect property for you.

Brenda founded Refugio Animales de Nosara which is Nosara's leading Local wildlife protection and rehabilitation facility helping protect the local Howler population. She also assists in the rehabilitation of all kinds of animals here in Nosara. Brenda began working in Real Estate & Property Management here in Costa Rica in order to create funding to assist in financing the local Refuge and wildlife preservation.

We are pleased and proud to have Brenda as part of our Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties Alliance.

Brian Bombard

Originally from Santa Catalina Island, California Brian moved to Costa Rica to join the family business and to enjoy the beautiful environment of Costa Rica, Nosara and Guanacaste.

As a Surfer and Diver he has been not only enjoyed so many of the amazing surf spots and dive locations around Nosara, he now knows them all intimately..

Brian worked in Reef Realty’s Property Management business for a number of years. He completed his studies and became a Licensed Real Estate Broker in 2008.

He now specializes in Property Management, Project Management and Real Estate Sales.

We are pleased to have such a person as part of our team as new first time buyers in Costa Rica need a lot of service and advice. He can answer all of your questions about moving to Costa Rica, shipping companies, finding the proper designer or furnishings for your home, contractors or local Architects.

If it’s a property rental your looking for, he knows the market and what is currently available in town.

Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties couldn't be more please with his addition to our growing Alliance across Costa Rica.

Jorge Andrés Solís, also known as George, is a native Costa Rican. He is from Orotina. a small town 30 minutes away from Jacó Beach. His compassion for computers took to the University of Costa Rica where he studied Computer Sciences. After graduating, he decided that he would follow his father’s footsteps who had 20 years in the Real Estate business in Orotina. George grew up with it and liked it as he is a people person and loves the interaction.

He is fluent in English and Spanish and has a very positive attitude

He’s fluent in English, with a positive attitude and a desire to please, always trying to provide a friendly service to his clients. If there’s anything you wish to know about this area ask him, he knows everywhere and everybody.

Larry Graziano initially came to Costa Rica in search of waves almost 12 years ago. Four years and many trips to Costa Rica he found his love of his life in Playa Negra. The rest is history.

He moved on to Costa Rica, built a home, family, small business, and has been a pivotal member of various local real estate agencies.

He is now specializing in the area surrounding Playa Negra where he resides on the “Gold Coast”. Larry was very much taken by the famous beautiful beaches, wonderful people, amazing sunsets, the perfect climate, warm water, sunshine almost every single day, and the amazing biodiversity.

He is a refreshing experience for our clients seeking properties in his area as his emotions are rekindled when he is educating people to the area and it shows.

His own experiences in Costa Rican life lend themselves to helping people have the smoothest transition possible from one country to another.

As always when Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties finds this kind of emotion and sincerity, we welcome him with open arms and enthusiasm as part of our growing Costa Rica alliance.

Heinz Otto Pflug, a native Costa Rican with German descendant parents, which contributes greatly to his values and ethics him, always, demonstrates.

He has been in real estate for over 12 years in Costa Rica.  A good number of those years were spent developing relationships with key people in key areas to identify the right kind of property scouts to back fill our inventory of land for sale. We cover a lot of areas in agricultural land such as land for fruits, vegetables, sugar cane, and bio diesel products. 

Heinz is constantly in touch with his scouts and maintains the correct information exchange to assure our listings are always current.

He is committed to providing you with the best customer service whether you are investing or selling property in Costa Rica. 

His Agriculture land experience is extremely valuable especially with the current pressure on farm production to meet the needs of a growing world population.  Many large investors have turned to this segment. We are very pleased with Heinz’s ability to put together large samplings of good agricultural land through our scouts and inventories.

Heinz is also a specialist in Teak. He is very talented and knowledgeable in every facet of finding the right Teak farm for our clients. We have a large inventory of 1000’s of acres of varying ages of good Teak that he has put together for the market.

Heinz is exactly what we need to round out our marketing program for this very large part of our business. We are not just pleased but we also welcome him and wish him well, He has all our support and confidence.

Jerad Portner decided to escape the frigid Minnesota winters and relocated to Costa Rica in 1999. He spent his first year here in the tourism industry where he travelled the country extensively, learned the language and got familiar all the different provinces of the country. Through his constant travels, he developed a vast network of contacts in a wide range of fields that continues to reach all corners of the country. Through his travels he soon realized that Guanacaste real estate was the place for him. Jerad if fully bilingual and he made his first real estate investment at the age of 24.

He also spent some valuable time as part of niche team making very professional presentations to acquaint and bring clients to Costa Rica for Investment in Real Estate products.

Jerad's compassion for people generosity with his time is seen in his work with the Do it Foundation, where he is a director. 

The Do it Foundation was formed as a charitable extension of the Papagayo Do it Center, which is the largest full service hardware and home center in Costa Rica, supplying the Guanacaste area with building materials and hardware. In addition to donating building materials and time to local schools, the foundation has assembled and donated over 8,000 wheelchairs throughout Guanacaste and other parts of the country. 

The same group is also involved in the development of the new $40 million Clinica Biblica hospital that will be developed near the Liberia International airport.   His well-rounded Costa Rica and especially Guanacaste experience benefits our Company greatly as our belief in the area is very strong..

Bringing Jerad on board is the first step of our growth objective.

We welcome him as part of our Costa Rica Alliance and know he will be a large asset to our firm and mainly our clients.

Alberto is Costa Rican and has spent many years in the United States accounting for his impeccable English. He graduated with a MBA in Business administration from the University of Costa Rica. He comes to us with a vast knowledge of the Real Estate Marketing and is well known through Costa Rica and understands the areas suited to retirement and investment very well.

His family was heavily into land as well. He spent a great number of years managing and marketing it contributing to his vast experience in Real Estate in Costa Rica.

We are very pleased and honored that he chose Costa Rica Retirement Vacation Properties and will do all we can to give him the best support available in the industry for his clients.