The intention of Costa Rica’s domestic violence laws is to protect — especially women — in cases of aggression or violence against a mate.

However, the law has been transformed into a law that creates a legal license to steal. Judges have not helped the situation at all. There are around 18 different medidas cautelares. This would translate into protective measures or injunctions in English. Most judges use only the harshest one, six months of complete separation of the parties involved. This is true even though in many domestic violence cases the charges are complete lies.

After police eject a husband from his home even if the allegations are fabricated, a court hearing may not take place for months.

The six-month protective measure actually has provoked violence, and a mate thrown out of the house sometimes goes back in violation of the restriction and does bodily harm to the spouse. If nothing else, the law as it is normally applied breaks down a family in direct violation of the Constitution and tears marriages apart.

Actually there is something in the domestic violence law most people do not know. The law states: El Estado procurará ofrecer alternativas de tratamiento y rehabilitación a las personas agresoras, tomando en cuenta, entre otras, su doble condición de víctimas y de agresoras.

This means the state shall offer alternatives to people entwined in a domestic violence case and offer assistance to both the victims and aggressors. This part of the law is hardly ever even offered to the parties of a domestic violence case according to four attorneys when it is an obligation of the state to do so.

The intention of the alimony and child support laws is to provide a source of income for children, spouses, and the elderly. The law also covers cases where people are incapable of working due to illness or a handicap. However, this law, too, has been in some many cases been distorted into a way to steal from another.

By filing questionable paperwork and receipts, a woman and her lawyer can convince a judge to set a very high alimony and child support payment, particularly if the husband involved is an expat. One judge in a decree that he felt that based on the receipts and other paperwork the expat could afford to pay the alimony and child support.

This is in direct violation of several key constitutional cases which state a judge cannot set an alimony or child support amount without concrete and factual information because the non-payment of either is an offense that can mean jail time. If the spouse does not pay the amount set by the judge, he goes to jail. Many times the amount is ridiculous because the primary source of facts about the husband’s income come from the wife and her lawyer.

Some expats caught up in this nightmare who cannot not pay end up leaving the country, even if they have children here. Others go into hiding or worse. Most do not have the financial recourses or legal knowledge to fight, especially when they are battling against laws that have been adulterated.

One poor expat was thrown out of his house without notice by a women and her daughter on trumped up charges of domestic violence, and now the wife has filed for alimony using his United States pension as proof he can pay it.

When an experienced legal professional looked at the facts of one case, it appeared more than just the woman was involved in getting what she wanted. She and her legal team obviously had the right contacts.

It is important to note that cases against expats flow differently than they do for local Costa Ricans. Usually, in a case of domestic violence, alimony and child support against a local, the whole family gets involved including the family’s pastor or priest. Normally, most expats do not have a big family support group in Costa Rica and are at a disadvantage. In an interview with three Costa Ricans caught up in a domestic violence and alimony case, all said that the problems were ultimately worked out inside the family.

This does not mean that Ticos do not get shafted by the laws too. They do. The primary cases where exorbitant alimonies were set by judges with little or no factual information now set a precedent to change the jurisprudence of the past.

The moral of the story, expats need to understand the domestic violence, alimony and child support laws in Costa Rica. Most do not. They need to understand the application of the laws are relentless. In many cases most expats who end up in court lose everything they own.

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Businesses, including hotels, real estate agencies, tour operators and developers, to name a few, need to plan their long-term Internet strategies today. Social media is transforming the world dramatically, and a simple Web site is just not good enough anymore.

Web sites, online advertising and Internet promotion have for many years been the primary means to market a product or service in Costa Rica to an international audience. The Internet is cheaper than print advertising, and it is an effective medium to reach a mass audience in the United States and other parts of the world, especially those persons in the planning stages of a Costa Rica vacation or retirement.

Being in the middle of a real estate down cycle might not seem to be the best time to promote or spend money on marketing, but most experienced businesses know otherwise. The things one does during the down market will determine how well they do in the up market.

Small business owners in Costa Rica who are looking to weather the storm are also best advised to start thinking about their long-term marketing plan. While it is difficult to earn a profit today in Costa Rica from the money spent on advertising or a slick Web site, there will be a time when vacations and dream homes on the beach will become hot commodities again.

In the old days of the Internet a Web site might retain a small fraction of viewers who would bookmark and quickly forget a page. If one was lucky, a prospect might send an e-mail message requesting more information and get added to a mailing list.

The good news is now, thanks to social media, a business can see a long-term return on an investment in Internet marketing. A measure of success is not what is sold today, but how many people subscribe to a blog, newsletter, Facebook or Twitter. Once the audience is captured, it is just a matter of occasionally reminding them about a product or service with an entertaining article, photo or video.

The trick to turn on social media is to get these kinds of marketing efforts beyond traditional e-mail campaigns and onto a page where the entire world can search, link or comment on the content. E-mail is still a powerful distribution method, and leveraging it with a blog allows readers to express their approval by posting to their Facebook, Twitter or own personal blog.

Personal endorsement is at the core of social networking and is effective because often people trust the recommendations and opinions of their friends. Social media accelerates this kind of interaction through the Internet, and its growth erodes the value of traditional advertising. This is why Facebook is now the No. 2 Web page on the Internet, according to the Alexa rating service, and social media has replaced pornography as the No. 1 use of the Internet.

Setting up a blog and promoting it is easier than ever thanks to services like Blogger (blogspot.com), which is rated the No. 8 Web page on the Internet by Alexa. Unlike a traditional Web site, a blog publication does not require any knowledge of things like html code, and expensive software like Dreamweaver and Frontpage.

While a professional may design a blog, the work of updating and publishing it is something that a business owner may do personally or hire out to another person at a much lower rate.

Free services like Feedblitz and Google Feedburner give a business the system to take e-mail subscribers from a web page, distribute a blog, and manage the technical and legal issues of mass e-mail.

Apart from the opt-in mailing list, it is a good idea to create profiles on services like Facebook and Twitter and then post links and new blog articles. These services work in parallel to the e-mail list, and many people prefer them for their ease of use and rapid social interaction.

A new blog or a Facebook page alone will not get much traffic and needs to be promoted using advertising. The important thing is when the market comes, a business will be starting with an active e-mail list with thousands of prospects. The world Internet audience will more clearly understand who has the established presence in Costa Rica.

Competitors, if they are not doing the same, will start from zero with a cold list of prospects and little social media reputation. The other guys, even if they have been on the ground for years, will be viewed as newcomers by the mass media, and pay high ad rates in a hot market just to stay afloat.

In summary, business owners with Web sites need to upgrade them by adding a blog, setup an opt-in mailing list, and promote on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, not to mention A.M. Costa Rica. The trick to keep a readership audience is to publish a few times a month and entertain but not overwhelm.

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Social media like Facebook and Myspace, among others, have officially overtaken pornography as the No. 1 activity on the Web. Obviously, people have not lost an interest in sex, but clearly the marketplace is moving, growing and operating with relative impunity in the United States via social networks.

This kind of global social change has implications for Costa Rica, and it could mean that the problem of sex tourism will come to an end. However, on the other hand it could make it much worse. When living in Costa Rica, it is easy to lose touch with what is happening in the United States and other parts of the world. The fact that cities like Houston, Chicago, Dallas and Miami have been turned into virtual brothels is something that an expat might have missed if they have failed to keep up with technology.

The issue is spotlighted by a big federal lawsuit brought by Thomas Dart, the Illinois sheriff who has accused Craigslist — Alexa.com now rates the site No. 7 in the United States — of being the world’s biggest pimp. His case was originally dismissed in October of last year and, the reason is, ironically, due to a federal child protection law.

The history may be unclear to many people, but can be summed up simply by thinking back to the late 1990s when the U.S. Congress took up the issue of protecting children from online pornography. A compromise was brokered into the 1996 Communications Decency Act that provides broad immunity for “interactive computer service(s).” Section 230 of the Act states that any “interactive computer service” is not a publisher of the content posted by third parties and they are immune from lawsuits or prosecution based on the material users post.

The bottom line is that under U.S. federal law Craigslist along with any social network or “interactive computer service” is not responsible for criminal activity perpetrated by its advertisers. It is worth pointing out the print media, such as the infamous Las Vegas telephone book or a “free newspaper,” enjoys no such protection under federal law.

The difference is the “electronic” element.

Sheriff Dart has filed a new federal case that attempts to prove that Craigslist is complicit in the act of prostitution, and this will prove to be a difficult argument.

His point is supported by the fact that in Cook County, Illinois, a girl can for just $5 publish semi-nude or explicit photos and receive phone calls in under an hour. Some girls ask for as little as $50, and even the more professional ladies charge under $200. The question to ask is why would an American use vacation time and pay the cost of airfare and daily hotel lodging just to seek prostitutes in Costa Rica?

Perhaps there is some allure in that Costa Rica does offer some anonymity from friends and relatives back home, and that prostitution is not illegal in Costa Rica. While sex tourists in Costa Rica are able to enjoy their party in a relatively open environment, this is likely to have less appeal as the culture of prostitution becomes more commonplace among younger Americans.

Remember there is a generation of Americans who will never buy a newspaper and are more likely to meet a spouse online than in person. It also stands to reason they will date prostitutes online despite the potential outcome of the Illinois federal case. Mainstream social media sites like Facebook and the Internet in general is a magical place where something can be concealed from public view and promoted at the same time.

Once a culture truly changes, it is usually impossible to go back. The phrase to know is media convergence, and it is the reason why 24 out of 25 of the largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation. Once a generation of consumers is lost, the only possible solution is to evolve, and sex tourism is no exception.

Prostitution in Costa Rica is not going to go away, but the face of it will change. The effects are already noticeable when you take a look at the male, aged 20 to 30 who frequent the bars popular with English-speaking tourists in downtown San Jose. This young crowd of consumers are more Costa Rican than international tourists.

The late Pat Dunn predicted early in his career as a local bar pioneer that the business in downtown San José would not be able to rely on tourists alone. We are seeing his prediction come to fruition, and the local market is becoming a vital part of the downtown entertainment business. Social networking is the key to reach this audience and the tourists at the same time.

The Costa Rican government has proposed a law to curb sex tourism promotion. However, the fact may be that they are way behind the worldwide Internet culture. If a sheriff in Illinois cannot stop sex promotion in his hometown by a company located on U.S. soil, how does the Costa Rican government plan to tackle the problem?

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Internet social networking accelerates life in the 21st century. It also proposes challenges to everyone doing business in Costa Rica.

More importantly, all the negative comments about Costa Rica are going to kill the country’s tourism future because the negative runs rampant through social networks. The country’s marketing system better catch up fast. The country is plagued with bad reports, from out-of-control property thefts to Americans getting beaten up at popular tourism destinations.

Social networking is the practice of expanding social contacts through connections among individuals, and although the process is as old as civilization itself, the Internet has accelerated the pace while increasing the amount of information that can be shared.

For those living in Costa Rica or considering relocation here, the Internet social networks are as important as ever. While in the past much of the information has been disseminated by those with a profit motive, the Internet social networks allow individuals to share first-hand information and experiences. A person is now able to consult instantly with dozens of other persons to determine if retirement in Costa Rica would fit their lifestyle or if a particular doctor, dentist or real estate broker has a good reputation.

Social connection is especially valuable for a newcomer who lacks roots in a new country, language skills and years of assimilation that can only come from growing up or being educated in the culture.

While many have been aware of networks like Facebook, Myspace and Youtube it’s possible that living in Costa Rica has distracted expats from the magnitude of change that is occurring on a truly global scale. Collectively these three social networks receive 250 million unique visitors per month, and have been in existence for no more than six years. ABC, NBC and CBS combined can only manage to reach 10 million viewers per month.

Radio as the first form of electronic mass communication took 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million. Television accomplished the same in 13 years while the Internet took four years. Facebook reached its first 50 million people in just two years, and presently there are 400 million registered and active users on the network. To put this in more perspective, this is a number that exceeds the total population of the United States.

Facebook is rated as the No. 2 page on the Internet by the Alexa ranking service, and is exceeded only by Google, which presently serves 76 billion Internet searches per month. Google served just 2.7 billion searches per month in 2006, and the increased volume of information is not and probably never will be a problem for massive networks of computers.

The effects of Internet social networking are particularly visible through American expats, who are informal ambassadors to nations like Costa Rica. One expat in Costa Rica can link to hundreds of relatives and former high school and university classmates, which expand exponentially. This reason alone is enough for the Costa Rican government to really consider how its treatment of expatriates has an effect on tourism.

The country is quickly reaching the point where one well-connected expat with a negative attitude can deter hundreds of people from vacationing in Costa Rica. No amount of expensive promotion on the part of the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo can counteract the damage that hundreds of expats talking about things like pollution or crime can do.

Nations like Costa Rica, unfortunately, are in danger of falling so far behind in bandwidth that the speed of now marginally broadband ADSL connections will resemble the dial-up Internet of the 1990s. As the former telecom monopoly struggles to implement 3G Internet service, the United States already enjoys 4G services in every major market.

One typical 4G phone can provide an Internet connection for up to 5 devices, and it is expected that the typical package will deliver between 5 and 12 Mbps by the end of the year. Following the dynamics of smartphone and social networks like Twitter is vital because it is predicated that in just 10 years mobile phone will replace the desktop computer as the dominant Internet device.

Web pages that do not automatically adapt their layouts to smartphones are in danger of becoming as obsolete as print media. Equally so, it is vital that any Web site with a future embrace social networking in a meaningful way. It’s no longer good enough to simply link to a profile on a social network without providing systems for commentary or social interaction directly on the page.

Some experts predict that the traditional Web site as we know it and even many blogging platforms will fade away in the coming years under a wave of information, much of which will be generated by social networks. While professionals talk about the loss of journalistic standards or declining quality of information, the more successful media outlets look for ways to aggregate information from social networks and moderate discussion.

At this point, no one has emerged as a leader in the realm of social networking among the English-speaking community in Costa Rica. The U.S. Embassy has a Facebook page. However its Web site is not a portal for social networking. For example, the Spanish-language news publication La Nación allows readers to comment on the news on its Web page in real time through a Twitter account. No English-language outlet of comparable professional standards provides any level of instant social collaboration.

Print media is truly dead, and while Costa Rica does have one English-language print newspaper the reasons for its continued existence seem ambiguous. Time is also gradually eroding the base of English-speaking people who are still willing to participate in the newsprint culture.

The average American teen on average sends 2,272 text messages per month and can be expected to never subscribe to a print newspaper during his or her lifetime. The next generation will in all probability view any form of print media as an expensive waste of environmental resources. Social networking is vital if this generation is ever to know much of a place like Costa Rica.

Costa Rica better clean up its act and get into the 21st century because the days of traditional media are numbered. Most important, the country needs to clean up its act, because its dirty laundry is aired instantly on the Internet, and there is little opportunity to counter the negative impact.

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There are several types of company structures in Costa Rica. The two most common are the sociedad anónima and the S.R.L.

However, there are only two types of tax statuses, active and inactive. This fact complicates tax filings for expats and is becoming more of a problem every day due to the enforcement of the country’s new banking regulations. There should be another status offered to filers by the tax department. This status could be called something like “nonoperational,”"static” or “passive.”

Active companies, in theory, exist to make revenues and after deducting legal costs and expenses end up with a profit, which is taxable. Inactive companies exist to hold assets but do not have revenues, costs or expenses. Active companies need to file several types of returns including, but not limited to, sales tax, education and culture tax and income tax forms. Inactive companies only need to file the education and culture tax form each year.

Here is the problem. If a household of an expat has a large domestic staff, it is recommended the employees be on a payroll in the name of a company and not the name of a person. In this case, the company whether it be a sociedad anónima or an S.R.L. has no other purpose but to exist to meet the payroll of the employees. In other cases, all the expenses of the household are paid out of the inactive company.

This is not really an active company using the rules of the tax department because the company does not have revenue. However, it is not an inactive company either because the payroll of the employees are, in theory, expenses for the company.

All companies have accounting requirements, whether they be active or inactive. In accounting there are always debits and credits.

Now in a company that is active revenues are received to pay the expenses. But where does the money come from to pay the payrolls and other household expenses in a company that has no revenues. Well, it comes from the owners of the company but not as revenues but as loans or capital inflow.

On tax returns, this kind of company will never have a profit, only losses. However, the tax departments still wants all the forms filed each year as if the company is active. This includes form D-151 and D-101. In the past, the tax department was not very careful in auditing the D-151 form. This form is an informational document that is filed by active companies as a cross checking mechanism to catch tax cheaters. The tax department was trying hard to make the filing of this form a quarterly endeavor, but after a big fight, it remained an annual filing due Nov. 30 of each year.

Now, the tax department is doing a much better job checking the D-151 form and even in companies that exist only to pay employees or other incidental expenses need to file this form. Recently, an expat couple was fined heavily because they did not file the D-151 form. They also were using their company to pay their telephone bills as well as their employees and did not report the expenses on the form.

Here is the other problem. In the past most expats left these kinds of companies as inactive but had bank accounts open to pay the bills. Most

banks in Costa Rica are updating their records due to new banking regulations. One of the many requirements to have a bank account is to submit a form proving the company is an active company. This fact means that an inactive company with a bank account will be closed by the bank unless the owners of the company go to the tax department and signs up as an active company. Once the company is active, all the other forms need to be filed or fines, and penalties will result. In addition, once a company is active, it also needs to keep a set of books, including accounting, which can be inspected at anytime by the tax department.

The good old days are gone where managing a company and maintaining a bank account was easy. Now days, it requires a lot of work and probably the services of an accountant. If many expenses are being paid out of one of these companies, an accounting program to keep track of the information needed to fill out the D-151 return will probably also be necessary.

It would be nice, but probably is only a pipe dream and will not happen, that the tax department start another tax category other than active or inactive which would facilitate the use of a company structure to pay payrolls and expenses of an activity that does not produce any revenue like a domestic household.

This would ease the tax filing requirements on expats on these kinds of companies and also alleviate the big headache of opening and maintaining a bank account. As it stands today, if an expat currently has a bank account for a company that is inactive, it will probably be frozen or closed shortly unless the owner makes the company active.

Citibank is currently in a major updating process and calling all of their customers to come bring their accounts up-to-date. Customers are being told that if they do not do so immediately, their bank accounts will be frozen, put in an inactive status, or closed.

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Domestic violence laws in Costa Rica seem to work when they should not and seemly do not work when they should. The law is also in direct contradiction to Article 52 of Costa Rica’s Constitution which states, “El matrimonio es la base esencial de la familia y descansa en la igualdad de derechos de los cónyuges.” This translates into English as, “Marriage is the essential element of family and can rest in the equality of the spouses.”

In fact, the domestic violence laws of this country tear a family apart on the slightest whim of a spouse. A few tears and without any kind of witnesses, a judge will throw a spouse out on the street. The minimum forced separation is six months, and usually the initial court audience where parties can be heard by a judge is at least a month after the eviction of the presumed guilty party.

Now this is even more interesting: Article 51 of Costa Rica’s Constitution states, “La familia, como elemento natural y fundamento de la sociedad, tiene derecho a la protección especial del Estado. Igualmente tendrán derecho a esa protección la madre, el niño, el anciano y el enfermo desvalido.”

This translates into English as, “The family, as a natural and fundamental element of society has the right to special protection of the State. Equally, this right protects the mother, the children, older people and the disabled.”

Read closely, this article leaves out the man. So, according to Costa Rica, the man is not an important part to a marriage and has no special rights.

This is in direct contrast to Article 33 of the Constitution which reads, ” Toda persona es igual ante la ley y no podrá hacerse discriminación alguna contraria a la dignidad humana.” This translates into English as, “All people are equal in front of the law and cannot be discriminated against.”

These articles of the Costa Rican Constitution seem to mean all people are equal in front of the law except for men in marriage. This travesty is now commonly known among women. Most of them know they have their spouse at their mercy and can use the law to get almost anything they want.

This is very apparent in domestic violence court. Most men are treated poorly and considered guilty before having any say in a domestic violence case.

The best strategy for a man being dragged in this type of situation is to reject the charges but accept the medidas cartulares or restrictions put on him by a judge. This is so because probably no matter what he says, it will not make any difference in the hearing. Usually, but not always, by rejecting the charges and accepting the restriction there will be no hearing.

Many men are taken to domestic violence court on trumped up charges, but most attorneys agree 90 percent of them will lose in any hearing. If these statistics are correct, why would any man want to go through with an audience in front of a judge? Many of the judges in these courts are women with their own chips on their shoulders, and all they do is drag the presumed aggressor through a diatribe of scolding.

Domestic violence is real and women and men get hurt. Some even die horrible deaths at the hands of an aggressor. But, what has happened in Costa Rica is that a spouse that really wants to hurt his mate in many cases ends up doing it anyway. The law does not work when it should. The reality of the law is that women use it to humiliate and extort from men, meaning it works when it should not. This thesis is based on observation of a number of such cases.

Most importantly, the law destroys family. What man would want to go back to his home after six months after he has been tossed out onto the street with nothing except the cloths on his back? In most cases, family is made of the husband, the wife, kids and even dogs and cats. Yes, the good old concept of family.

Now let us take a true case where the woman in this typical family wants more money for more pretty things. The man balks and a discussion about family budgets arise in these hard times. The wife gets disgruntled and makes a complaint in front of a domestic violence judge with a few tears in her eyes, and the man is in the street in hours. Women in Costa Rica know they can do this. They know they can actually extort from man to get what they want using the domestic violence laws of this country.

In most cases the family goes too. The man is on the street for the minimum of six months with no communication with his wife, children, or even the dogs and the cats. Does anyone really think most of them want to go back to this kind of lifestyle?

In summary — and important points to ponder — in domestic violence cases in Costa Rica the man is thrown out of his home with no hearing, no rights, no say whatsoever. He will have no say until a hearing which is usually months after the action of eviction. In the hearing, he is presumed guilty and usually only gets a verbal beating from the judge. He needs to fend for himself for a minimum of six months with no contact with his family.

Do the domestic violence laws of Costa Rica preserve Article 52 of Costa Rica’s constitution which states the marriage is the essential element of family and spouses are equal?

True domestic violence is abominable and it needs to be sanctioned. But, so should the misuse of domestic violence laws that are used in themselves a method of coercion and intimidation and end up destroying families.

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There are international developers currently looking for deals in Costa Rica. The past boom in the country created some opportunities because many projects were left unfinished when the market fizzled in late 2008. They are looking for the money trees of the next boom.

However, some opportunities that look good are not what they appear after some digging into their fundaments. The most common problems are that the original founders borrowed too much money to get the projects moving because they believed they would sell fast to pay off the debts.

There are other problems too. Many of the original promoters did not do their due diligence and bought land that in some cases is not developable at all. In other cases, only a small portion of the land is dividable and buildable. Other problems range from water issues, slope of the land, offsets from springs and rivers, and forestry restrictions, to name a few.

Real estate agents tend to emphasize the good and paint a pretty picture to prospective buyers. In many cases, they to not disclose the bad — and to be fair — many of them do not know the true state of the property they are trying to sell.
The only way to get a feel of the reality of a property — especially big properties and developments — is to dig and to dig deep. The first clue is to look at the record at the Costa Rican national registry of properties, the Registro Nacional.

If there are legal problems associated with a property, those facts are usually — but not always — annotated in the property record. This information usually includes a court case file number if the property has legal problems. It is imperative to get a copy of the case filed against the property to know the true story and the nature of the legal problems.

These legal cases can be very long and involve volumes of court material. Most of them are somewhat complex as well, and a good lawyer is needed to decipher the legal mumbo jumbo. However, with this said, usually if there is lots of paperwork involved in the cases, the summary is usually pretty simple. In most cases, someone borrowed too much money or made too many promises to creditors and prospective buyers, and they did not meet their obligations. So the project ended up in court.

The good news in some cases is that the parties involved in the court battle want out and are just waiting for someone to come along and save them from the drawn out court battle that is common in this country.

A smart developer who finds a project of interest needs to contract a small professional team to study the details of the case. The team in turn needs to summarize the history of the project, determine how and why it ran into trouble and determine the players.

The players would be the people who started the project, the people from whom the developer borrowed money and anyone who bought into the project along the way. Usually, most of this information can be found in the court material if the property is the object of a legal case.

Once a brief is put together and the history is known, it is time to have an independent professional get on the phone and start asking
questions as to whether a settlement is possible to close the legal mess and make a deal. Today, many people who were involved in large projects just want out and to get as much cash as they can to put their lives back together.

The last boom of Costa Rica has broken emotionally and financially many individuals and companies alike.

It is interesting to point out that in some cases, the mortgage holders of many properties are lawyers. They loaned money to investors at high interest rates, and they do not want to make any deals. They just want to foreclose and get the properties they sold back so someday they can sell it again during a new boom time to new, hungry prospective buyers.

What some developers are finding when looking into property deals is that the properties they are studying have already gone through a public auction, but they are being told there is a chance to get the property back by the way of some legal maneuvers. In most cases, this information is just hopeful thinking on the part of the people who have lost the property, and there is really no legal magic.

There are property deals to be had in Costa Rica today. From single properties where the owners are broke and need cash and are willing to accept in some cases ridiculous offers to large developments that were never finished.

In the case of the large projects, some have real big problems and expensive ones to fix from a legal point of view, but there are others that do not have legal problems or at least only little ones that are easy to fix.

There are people in the world with money because they held onto it during the financial craziness and are now ready to buy. Generally, these types of investors know that people make money when they buy, not when they sell. Another word for them might be bottom feeders. Whatever one wants to call them is unimportant. The fact is some of them are coming to Costa Rica now and are looking for deals.

This information is important for those in Costa Rica who want to sell. They need to look at their own financial picture, their legal problems if they have any and try to put together a package that would interest a prospective buyer. These buyers are here, and they are looking around now.

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There is great news for expats and tourists in the cloud. Speaking of cloud computing, that is. Most expats — people of other nationalities who have made Costa Rica their home — do not have a clue what the term cloud computing means even though the concept could greatly change their lives, especially those who would like to make Costa Rica their home or at least visit the country more often.

Cloud computing is nothing more than working on the Internet using software and services that are provided on the Internet. Google is one of the foremost pioneers of these new services. Gmail, Google’s e-mail service, was just the beginning of its huge other offerings in software.

Two examples in Google’s menu are its calendar and document applications. However, the company offers other applications as well. Many are free and some others have charges associated with their use.

Why is this important to expats and tourists?
The answer is simple. It means one does not need to work from the confines of an office any longer or even in any physical location. The Internet, cloud computing and Software as a Service — commonly referred to as SaaS — truly sets people free.

Over the last two years there has been an explosion of services available to professionals on the Internet which allow them to work from anywhere. These new services increase as well the usefulness of smart cellular telephones, iPhones and Windows Mobile enabled phones, to enhance working from the cloud.

Many expats and tourists who live in or visit Costa Rica are some kind of professional. At least they have retired or are vacationing from some kind of work that can still use their expertise. This knowledge is marketable, and it can be sold and invoiced using the cloud. Many of these services are geared toward those who sell time rather than things, but what a great thing to sell: One’s knowledge in the form of time.

Here is how to turn time into money, using the Internet and cloud computing while surfing the afternoon at Playa Guiones or watching the sun set on one of the other beautiful beaches of Costa Rica.

The major player in the cloud computing world is Google. However, new companies are emerging daily to fill in the gaps where Google is weak. This is especially true in the area of invoicing and collecting for one’s billable time.

The leader of the pack in using the Internet to bill for almost anything including one’s time is FreshBooks. This company was started by people billing for Internet design work, but the company has exploded into one that is changing the way people think about the way they live and earn a living.

Here is an example of this concept and the use of FreshBooks:

Joe Tourist came to Costa Rica for the weekend from his office in New York to surf the afternoon at Playa Guiones, a famous surfing spot at Nosara. After long, hard surfing, he gets a call from a client from the United States and spends more than an hour on his cellular telephone in a deep consultation. As soon as the call is finished, Joe hits sends invoice from his smartphone, a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, using MiniBooks, a component of the FreshBooks system, and the client is sent an invoice immediately via e-mail for the consultation.

Depending on what one sells, there are many other options available to bill for services and things using the cloud. The major players in billing professional time are Clio, Rocket Matter, and Bill4Time. FreshBooks and Harvest are the leaders in billing for other types of time-related matters and for items. All the companies are growing very fast, and their offerings are increasing exponentially this year.

Now here is an interesting quandary: Is it legal to come to Costa Rica and bill for your time using the Internet or smartphones? Tourists are not suppose to work here. Many legal residents are also restricted and cannot work legally. Is the Costa Rican government entitled to collect income taxes on revenue produced in this country by foreigners using the cloud? Interesting questions for sure. Undoubtedly, these queries will have the Costa Rican government as well as the country’s tax authorities in a huge dilemma for years.

Here is a prediction. Cloud computing will be great for Costa Rican real estate values. Again, the rational is simple. People will not be tied to living in any particular place.

Costa Rica’s 3G Internet system is off the ground, and it is getting better. In the next three to five years it should be great. The system works almost anywhere in the country today.

All this may sound a bit techie for some, but really it is not. It is all pretty simple stuff, and it is getting easier to use by the day. Cloud computing is here, and it is just going to get better and easier to use. This translates into more mobility for those who want to come to Costa Rica and live or have a second home here. This also translates into a bright future for the country and higher real estate value in the years to come.

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