You're thinking about moving to Costa Rica. How do you decide if this is the right move for you? In this podcast episode Tammy Lovell shares the tips and tricks she learned along the way and the help she received to navigate this new life and lifestyle. Just for a moment, forget about the complexity of the world and discover something new. Take a slow deep breath and allow Tammy to introduce you to the land of PURA VIDA.
Laurel: Welcome everyone to another episode of real estate investing in Canada by The REITE Club. I am here with my co-host today. Francois Lanthier and I'm Laurel Simmons. Today, our guest is Tammy Lovell, who is living and breathing and working and eating and playing in Costa Rica.
Francois: Yes, it's amazing. I had the pleasure of meeting Tammy in person back in March, and she's my realtor in Costa Rica in Guana, Costa anyway, and an awesome person. What I love about her is she's from Newfoundland, and you can tell it's warm, friendly. There's no nonsense and a very knowledgeable, very well traveled woman.
She's very approachable. You can ask for anything. There's no taboos. It's great. I love it. And I love people from Eastern Canada. I love people everywhere, but I think there's something special about Newfoundland and the Maritimes. And you can tell Tammy brought that to Costa Rica with her. Great interview.
Laurel: I think that Tammy really focuses well. We really focused on what it's like to live there because yes, we can do all the stuff about buying stuff there, real estate and all the rest of it. But I think it's so important to understand what it's really like to live there. And Tammy shared what the food's, the climate's you really don't need to bring five suitcases down which like she did. Five suitcases full of clothes and explains why. It's a really great interview and I hope everyone enjoys it.
I'm sure you will. Just before we go into the interview, all I wanna say is if you like this podcast, go on and rate us to any of the platforms, whether it's Apple or Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. Just give us the rating, cuz that'll help us reach other people who are interested in learning all about real estate investing. With that Francois, let's go to the interview. Hello, Tammy, how are you? And welcome to The REITE Club podcast.
Tammy: Hello Laurel, how are you? I am so happy to be here. Thank you for the invite.
Laurel: We've got Tammy here and she lives in Costa Rica. Lucky woman. Tammy, why don't you start off by telling us how you got to Costa Rica in the first place?
Tammy: Once upon a time, there was a snowstorm and a great bottle of wine. It actually started that way. Of course, my husband and I are from Newfoundland and we've been living in St. John's Newfoundland for many years. My kids were all grown and left the nest.
I was working in real estate, commercial real estate back in St. John. I absolutely love my home province of Newfoundland. I'm an ambassador. However, I don't love the cold weather. Basically, we decided that we would buy a vacation home in Costa Rica. After a week of intense snow, there was a huge snowstorm in St. John's. It was January of 2014. It was a Saturday night.
We were sitting down drinking wine and an agent from a real estate agent from Costa Rica actually sent me some properties. Of course, the snowstorm and the wine was making me feel warm and fuzzy. We started looking at this link and really got interested. We did a little bit more research and then before the month was over, actually put an offer on a house with a condition to come and see it the next month.
We came down, looked at the property. We decided against that particular property, but our agent showed us a whole bunch of other properties and we bought a property and we were not in fact moving here at the time. We just purchased it, basically thinking that it would be a great vacation place.
We already had a vacation house in Arizona. But of course it wasn't by the ocean and my husband wanted to be by the ocean. The rest is history. We came down and enjoyed the home and the real estate agent convinced me that I should come and start selling real estate in Costa Rica. That's how that's pretty much it in a nutshell.
Laurel: I'm thinking from that story, that bottle of wine you had was really life changing. Beware folks, if you watch out what happens with that great bottle of wine, cuz yeah, wine is my passion of my life, but wow.
Francois: Picking up everything and leaving, but Tammy, I think you also kept a house in Canada as well. You still travel between the countries.
Tammy: Yes. We initially kept our family home. I think we sold it probably about a year later, but we've since bought a great house in downtown St. John's. We go home every summer and spend all summer and I go home for Christmas. Now, I'm a grandma. I have two wonderful grandchildren, two boys, Levi and Jessie. It's very important that for me, that I travel back and forth and St John's, my soul is there and so it's home. It always will be home, but this is a great place to spend the winters of course.
Francois: What do you do with your house while you're away in St. John? Do you rent it out?
Tammy: No, it's all of my artwork collection and personal things, but the children take care of it.
Francois: Okay.
Laurel: Very cool. I was just gonna ask, what would you think is the difference between living in Costa Rica and living in Newfoundland. Can you sum that up? I know that's a big question. We could probably talk for two hours about it, but I think people are interested in that because it's one thing to say I'd like to live in another country, but it's entirely different to actually do it. And Costa Rica is a different culture. It's a different climate and all the rest of it. What would you say? What's the major thing that you've noticed like in living, having the Costa Rican lifestyle?
Tammy: I think the first year that I moved here, I honestly think three nights a week. I would wake up in the middle of the night and go, what have I done? I literally knew one person. And that was the real estate agent that sold us the property. I didn't know the language. Now, mind you, a lot of people here do speak English and of course there's a huge expat community. And of course it's a Mecca for tourism.
English is pretty easy to find in the area that I live, but some business is conducted in Spanish. The culture of course is completely different. Everything from the music to the food, just the basics, but having said. It's interesting because I have compared Costa Rica to my hometown in Newfoundland, which is fortune, which is where I grew up and stayed until I was I guess 18, just beautiful salt of the earth people.
I ride my bike every day, which I did when I was growing up. That makes me feel pretty special. And I guess it's just the core of the people here and it does have a small town feel the same as where I grew up. While the differences are huge, of course, but there are some similarities, that emotional part that makes you feel warm and fuzzy.
Francois: And a big question. I think a lot of people would have as well, is the dry season and rainy season. A lot of people hear about it. And I think right now you're in, at the time of this recording it's the rainy season. How is life with rain? Cause we think of the sunshine and rainbows and stuff.
Tammy: It's true. We actually don't call it the rainy season. We call it the green season. Costa Rica has seven provinces. The province where I live is called Guanacaste. It is the hottest and driest province. Pretty much from the beginning of November until the end of April, we do not see one drop of rain. The temperatures are pretty high. It's very dry. It almost has a little bit of a desert feel to it.
If I can say that I had a home in Arizona for three years, so in some ways I do sort of get that feeling during that time and then may roll around and generally from May until the end of what I would call summer North American summers. The end of August, there is usually a mix of rain and sunshine. The rains are localized. The joke is, of course, if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes because it is gonna change.
This year's a little different. We've had a lot more rain. Of course, the weather is changing all over the world, so we know all about that. That's a different podcast altogether, but typically September and October are the wettest months. And while it's still beautiful, because of course the rain is very warm. It can be intense at times. It's not to say that we do not have sunshine during that time because we do, but I do encourage people if they are looking for a tropical vacation, it's probably best to wait until after those two months of September and October, for sure.
Laurel: I'm just thinking about, if we move down there and I'm thinking, okay what even wardrobe and things like that. Cause there's so many things to think about when you move, right?
Tammy: There is Laurel. When I moved here, I literally brought everything. I came down on September the 13th, 2014. I'll always remember that date. I had been very well traveled, but I had never lived anywhere different than Newfoundland. It was a huge deal for me. I brought five suitcases. I had everything from the typical tropical beach wear to business suits, light suits, albeit linen. I brought my jeans and a light coat in case it got cool.
I came with a lot of stuff. I was here for maybe a month when I realized that I didn't need most of those things. You have a very light wardrobe. We live at the beach. You need some beach wear. For me, I needed some light dresses and some workout gear, and that's about you living a much more minimalistic life and you do not need as many things as you would when you're back in your North American life.
Laurel: I was just gonna say that I noticed that even when we went into some legal firms and banks and all, and although they were dressed, it wasn't kind of business casual. It wasn't like shorts and a tank top, but it was, and I could see that, that it would be quite easy. You don't need the well up in the mountains, maybe you're going mountains. You need something warmer. Couple of layers, like a sweater on a pair of jeans, but that's pretty easy to take care of. And there's lots of places to buy clothing there, if you need it.
Tammy: Of course, there's wonderful places to go shopping here and in the local area that I live. And if you want to go further, you can go to the city of San Jose where you're gonna find just about all the stores that you would find at the Eaton center, for example, in Toronto. Absolutely many choices. But it is casual.
Francois: I know you do travel within the country a fair bit. For those listening, where can people find you? Cuz it's interesting, like you might wanna look at the pictures cuz it's a very visual Tammy, you do a good job of sharing. You were Nicaragua. You do this, you do that. From Costa Rica, a lot of people think you go there and you stay there, but you can travel and enjoy it.
Tammy: It's a wonderful base. I've always been a little bit of a gypsy. I like to go around and spend a few days here and there. I need a home base obviously, but I really do enjoy traveling. Sometimes I just like to get in the car or take the bus and go somewhere and explore and experience the different cultures because the culture is different within different areas and provinces of the country itself.
Guanacaste is in the Northwest as I was saying. The other thing is that, we're literally like about an hour and 20 minutes from the Nicaragua border. I actually went to Nicaragua last weekend with some friends. We just crossed the border and once we got across, we took a taxi to a beach town and had a couple days just enjoying something different. The country itself of Costa Rica is so incredibly diverse. You have the beaches and the rainforest and the cloud forest and the mountains. There are so many different things to see. I do encourage people to come to spend a few days in each area to get what I would consider the true Costa Rican experience.
Laurel: Let's talk for a few minutes about some of the stuff that we don't normally talk about, but I think is really important, like the medical system and the water and sure. Because, and especially if people are thinking about moving down there, that's really important, right? What is the medical system like down there?
Tammy: The medical system is fantastic. There is a two-tier medical system. There is the private medical system, which is very inexpensive compared to other areas in the world. And then of course there is the public system, which is like we have back in Canada. I would say that the public healthcare system here is on par with the public healthcare system in Canada. We are members of the public because we are residents of Costa Rica.
We applied for residency when we moved here and did that whole process. I do use the private quite a bit just because it's readily available. It's very inexpensive. The dental care here is also incredibly topnotch. I have a lot of clients that come for dental tourism. As a matter of fact, they will come down and dental work done for a fraction of what they are able to get done , perhaps in their own country.
Right in town where we are, there is a wonderful medical clinic and you can go there to get an x-ray ultrasound, blood work, various things, and there's a scattering of doctor's offices in town dental care, and then you've got chiropractors and all sorts of people that are into healthcare wellness. The opportunity for whatever you need is right here.
Laurel: What about food and water? You touched a little bit at the beginning when you said that the food is different, but tell us, because a lot of people don't enjoy it. When you travel normally, a lot of people will just go into a restaurant and you might get the local food, but you might not depending on the restaurant you go into, but you're living there, presumably you're not eating in a restaurant, every meal, because if you're anything like me, like I would just go, I just can't do that. I have to prepare my own food. Talk to us about the food and I know the water's really good there. I guess we could just say that off the top.
Tammy: I'll mention the water first. The water, this is one of the countries where not only is drinking the water easy. It's a good idea because there are so many minerals in the water which come from the rich earth and the volcanoes and the food is typical Costa Rican food, a lot of fresh fruits and vegetable rice and beans, of course. And then, chicken meat, seafood fish, because of course it's a country where there's a lot of fishing and fresh seafood, you can go in any restaurant pretty much and get the catch of the day and have a variety of things to choose from tuna or mahi, or I don't know, shrimp, that sort of thing, but it's all very fresh. The fruits and the vegetables, not what you're eating today, have probably just been picked a few days ago.
Laurel: I also know cause I've been down and looked at some of the grocery stores. I can tell that there's a difference between the various grocery stores. There's the grocery store more like the set up more like what we have here in Canada or North America. We have the higher end product maybe, but they charge a lot more and the store's air conditioned and there's lots of packages of things where if you go into the more local grocery store. There's a lot more interesting. You can pick up stuff. That's cheap, easy and fresh.
Tammy: Yes, there's a local grocery store. There are a bunch of local grocery stores, but there's one in particular that I do go to on the weekends. I can go on a Saturday for example, and pick up my fruits and vegetables for the week and it might cost me $20 and lettuce and tomatoes and just a variety, the cabbage peppers, bananas, pineapples, papayas, watermelon. There's an abundance and it's all fresh and it's very inexpensive and delicious.
Francois: Yes, I love it. I live in my house, which is very close to that grocery store. It is totally worth the trip or the walk, mine I think is like a hundred meter walk, but anyway, I know not everyone has that luxury. Maybe onto their real estate cuz Tammy, your realtor in Costa Rica, you're dealing with mostly residential properties and I'm sure our listeners are dying to find out about where there are opportunities.
I know we've discussed a few exciting projects. There might not be very many units left, but where are the opportunities in your opinion? For someone who might wanna become an expat. I know that's a different situation, cuz let's say you don't have kids at home anymore. Then you might want something smaller or if you want your kids to come with you, you might want something bigger. Do you have any recommendations of places people should look to?
Tammy: The first conversation that when someone reaches out to me asking about real estate in Costa Rica is of course to find out about their lifestyle, what it is that their needs are, their wants are one of the things that I can say is that you do live a little smaller here and a lot of your living is done outside. I tell people, you don't necessarily need to bring your larger lifestyles with you, because you're able to purchase something if you buy a condo or a home, but it doesn't have to be to the same extent because you're not inside as much here as you are.
When you're back home, obviously, because the weather is fantastic and it's a lifestyle of course, and Costa Rica. It's not just about moving here to purchase a home but it's to have a certain lifestyle. There are an abundance of everything from studio apartments to 1, 2, 3 bedroom condos and a single family that are available. It's fun there. I like to say that there is something for everyone here. There really is.
Laurel: What if you were interested in buying something. Whether you rented out yourself like rented out and then go down just for some vacation yourself, or you live down there permanently. We haven't even really talked about the residential requirements, but I know that some of the concerns people have are like who's gonna look after my home.
It's one thing to buy it. If I'm back in Canada and I don't know, the water heater stops working or the plumbing needs fixing or there's a leak in the roof, who knows, right? How do you manage that? What services are there? What kind of property management is available?
Tammy: There are many companies here that do property management. Some are just one or two people, could be couples or it could be a large company, but there's lots of opportunity to have someone to be able to take care of your home and they will do everything from check on your place to taking care of the pool.
If it's a single family home and you have a pool and you're gardening. And even pay your bills as a matter of fact. That's one of the things that I like to be able to offer clients is to introduce them. I like to introduce them to a list or a variety of people, and then they can do their own interviewing and choose somebody that they would like to take care of their home.
Laurel: That makes sense. Cuz people do get concerned and they need people that they can trust.
Tammy: Absolutely.
Laurel: It's easier now in a lot of ways because we do have all these communication tools. Something does happen to your property. That's a five hour flight away or whatever it is, and your property manager can take a picture and send it to you or do it over zoom or whatever. And you can actually see what's going on.
Tammy: It's so easy, absolutely.
Laurel: I think we're gonna go on to the lightning round and this is really easy, Tammy. We'll ask you a question and you just answer, you don't have to think. Maybe you wanna think about it a little bit, but it's just whatever comes to mind.
Question number one, you talked about lifestyle. What's your favorite recreational activity?
Tammy: Riding my bike.
Francois: Very good. I can see that it's a beautiful lot. Many things to see in the fresh air. Sometimes not so fresh, but anyway, the sea air or something, the warmth. Question number two, and we're really changing up the lightning round. What's your best communication tip cuz I know in Costa Rica communication works very differently. I'm sure anybody listening to this will enjoy this answer.
Tammy: The best communication tip for everyone who's interested in Costa Rica is to download WhatsApp because every single person here does business on WhatsApp, it could be your doctor. It could be the person that you do banking with. It could be someone who you've hired to paint. It could be your cleaning service. Everyone does communication through WhatsApp here.
Laurel: That's really interesting because it's like that in Europe too. I was amazed, like even I was in Europe before COVID obviously, and then was there last year and the difference in the two years, like everyone's on WhatsApp, everyone.
Tammy: It's fantastic. You can make a phone call, you can leave a message. You can do video. There's texts. There's so much, it's funny because I was actually a I had a bit of an illness a few weeks ago. I was a bit sick. And so I had An appointment with my doctor.
When I was leaving, he just said, just send me a message in a couple days on WhatsApp and let me know how you're feeling. When you go to their office, of course, when you see their branding and their marketing to contact them, you contact the front desk through WhatsApp to make your appointments. And it's just easy. And it also adds a personal touch.
I think it's a great service and it also makes me feel important in that I matter with whatever is going on with my health, that I have that relationship with my doctor and not just me, but anybody that would go in or a dentist. It's really cool. We've come a long way in communication.
Laurel: We sure have. Question number three. What meal do you like to make most in your own little kitchen? What's your favorite meal to make?
Tammy: Breakfast is my favorite meal. I can do anything with an egg on forest Gump and when his partner talks about shrimp, I could go on for an hour about eggs. If I have eggs and fresh vegetables and some fruit, oh boy, this is like a feast for me. It's my favorite thing to prepare every morning, I go, I ride my bike. I go to the gym. I come back and I cook a feast and it's my favorite meal.
Francois: I love it. The eggs are really fresh in Costa Rica. I'm not sure, it's still warm. Question number four. Tammy, what do you do to rest and relax in Costa Rica? Cuz this sounds a lot of excitement. How do you spend your relaxing days?
Tammy: I literally live about 50 meters from the beach. The beach calls me pretty much every day. I like to walk the beach and whether it is sitting there and staring at the ocean and meditating or taking a book and also I like to, and go exploring, get lost, I guess it's not really getting lost if you're just somewhere else.
There's just so much to see and it's very chill. This is a very chill culture and you can really get a sense for that when you're here. No one's really in a hurry. I come from a background in a culture where I don't mean the province that I'm from, but my previous work with deadlines and that sort of thing. It has a nice feeling to it.
Laurel: Wow, sounds real. I can just feel myself relaxing as you're talking about it. Tammy, where can people reach you? Let me guess, It's through What's app, but how can they reach you?
Tammy: They can either send me an email. It's tammy sellscostarica.gmail.com or WhatsApp of course it's the plus sign and the country code is +115068395807. Those are a lot of numbers.
Laurel: We'll have that in the show notes. So, people wanna look at that.
Tammy: And I'm on Facebook as well in most of the social media sites. I have a Tammy Sells Costa Rica Facebook site. Of course, you got me on TikTok. I'm not very good at it, but I tend to put more spinning or cycling videos there than anything, but yeah. I do post a lot of lifestyle stuff because this isn't just selling a home or a condo. I'm marketing a lifestyle because it truly is a lifestyle. I'm taking selfies on the beach.
I think in the winter, people get pretty sick of me back home in Canada, my friends, and there I am posting beach selfies and monkeys. I don't know about fishing or something but of course it's all part of the lifestyle and the marketing and the branding.
Laurel: Thank you so very much, Tammy. It was wonderful chatting with you. I know we could chat for a couple of hours, I'm sure. But you know what? I think I'm coming down to Costa Rica fairly soon. Hey, I might just knock on your door and say, hey, let's sit on the beach and drink wine. There you go. It was great having you.
Tammy: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Francois: Laurel, are you ready to use WhatsApp now and learn all about Costa Rican services and get a hold of your doctor on WhatsApp? Who would've known?
Laurel: Truly, I don't think my doctor. I do have WhatsApp cuz I'm in Europe a lot now and have been in Costa Rica. I understand, I just use WhatsApp a lot, but yeah, it's pretty amazing isn't it? How that's just taken and that's just what you gotta do when you travel. Not just travel, but work and live in other countries because that's what people are doing.
Francois: That's it, enjoy the internet and how people are reachable and people are friendly in Costa Rica. They're really nice. I love what Tammy shared about the lifestyle. Being able to bike and walk on the beach and move around freely. A lot of people have images of South or Central America with these gated communities and you're scared, but it's really not like that in Costa Rica. That's why it has a special place in my heart. I think Laurel as well now.
Laurel: It is a beautiful spot and I feel very comfortable there. I think that comes through on what Tammy was talking about. She does feel comfortable. Obviously she's moved down from Newfoundland and it is her second home. I understand that her heart is in Newfoundland, but still she really loves being in Costa Rica. Hope you everyone enjoyed the podcast. And we're just going to sign off now with our final word of go check out thereiteclub.com and yes see what's new, lots of podcasts, lots of content, lots of videos, all kinds of things for you to look at, read, watch, listen to all the rest of it. Until the next time Francois. What do we say? Customize your life.
DJ: Thanks for listening to The REITE Club podcast, where the focus is on helping all levels of real estate investors advance to the next level and help you customize your life. Be sure to tune in next week at thereiteclub.com/podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you get a few seconds, please rate the podcast wherever you're listening. It helps the show get noticed by others like you, and we truly appreciate it and don't forget to subscribe.
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