So here I am again trying to write for the Nicaland newsletter list. I write infrequently at best. Somehow other things just seem to get in the way. I like to dream a lot and I'm trying to get as much dream time in as possible. Some people say it looks a lot like sleeping but I'm dreaming of my next project is all? Who can sleep in the afternoon?
The majority of you are just now discovering Nicaragua and tying to find out how you might fit in.
I, on the other hand, am tying to figure out how to fit out. That is to say, now that I'm here and have created an income stream, I'd like to live the lifestyle I came here looking for.
House on the beach, lots of spare time to fill with interesting things to do and enough income to live with out my Golden Years is style and joy.
Here is a short glimpse of what I am doing to succeed and live my dreams.
Dennis and I have three houses coming to completion in the next two months. Furnishings and finish carpentry fill our days.
I found a great helping hand in Maria experience Griffith who is an ex-general manger the big Holiday Inn in Managua and the person who brought the Big Marina Puesta del Sol on line in the North of the country.
She is helping furnish the Condo On the Beach at Playa Iguana and Dale Dagger's Casa de Surf on the beach in Bahia Gigante.
Our Condo unit right on Playa Iguana is so much more than we ever hoped for. The quality of construction combined with the shear beauty of the location is simply awe-inspiring. All these condos are sold but there is another set coming on-line this year and we have the inside line. See below for details.
We are fitting it out in Nica Beach House style and hope to be renting it by Mid August. The builders offer a furniture package but it's much too nice for my intended clients. I didn't think a leather couch in a beach house would work. (Eighteen steps to the water at Leap high tide, I counted.) Maria found me a furniture builder in Masatepe who build custom furniture and covered it with fabric Maria found in Managua. Great price and great workman's ship and I am stoked.
The Surf Lodge will house the guests for my surf tour operation in a level of comfort previously only found in a fine hotel in San Juan del Sur. I found a great builder in Fritz Kaerohner, which is how you spell it on a Spanish Keyboard. Fritz started building house in Nicaragua a few years ago and his quality and trustworthiness has brought him more work than he can take on.
It is really exciting to watch a house take shape and it is very comforting to have a very good contractor.
Our Lot project and Un -gated community in Bahia Gigante is moving along wonderfully too. We are almost finished with the Topographical study and we plan to hire a first rate planner to help cut in the roads and lots. It is very satisfying to be able to apply all the things we learned from Project one so quickly and this time with the time and money to do it well.
We are currently negotiating on a piece of land where one of the local wells sits. We hope to be able to donate the well to the local community and also donate the land next to it to build a lending library. We will use the model La Biblioteca Movil that Jane Mirandette has so successfully done here in San Jan del Sur.
The wet season has arrived early and in force. There has been lots of rain and we are seeing the results of good road drainage. The road to Bahia Gigante is being maintained by a group of investors mainly Rancho Santana, Antonio Granados from Playa de Los Perros and a group that calls themselves The Riviera de Tola Group. I like them for no other reason than they have taken it upon themselves to maintain a road that I use. I like that a lot. They invited Dennis and I to one of their meetings and then invited us to join the group. They feel that by banding together they can bring more pressure to b! are with the local and National governments.
My read is Dennis and I are just too small to try to swim in that fish tank.
If you know me you know I spend a lot of time on the front porch of the Hotel Villa Isabella. I've been putting my surfing guest there for years. A few years ago all we talked about was surfing on the porch in the morning. Then Real Estate became the hot topic. Now we are finding my surf clients are interested in buying a piece of real estate while they are down here.
You know I like to keep these things short so here is a quick summary of what Dennis and I have for sale and what we are most interested in.
Bahia Gigante:
Lots with ocean view from $35K. We are finding some people would like to buy a larger non-ocean view piece so they can grow into to. We will try a few 1.5-acre parcels for about $110K from the flats in front of the view property. There won't be but a few of these. Buy one with friends and grow your own little community within a community.
Playa Iguana:
The acre lots in the Bosque are selling well. The lots are about a half-acre and sit right near both the golf course and the beach. Just sold one of these and they are really lovely. Cool, quite and just a few steps from Golf or White sand beach. Great price too.
There are another set of beach condos on line and we have paid a deposit to reserve two for our clients. These won't last as they are in front of a world-class surf spot Rental income is guaranteed from these. Yeah I know, it will crowd the water but you going to be the guy who tells people they can't come to Nicaragua because we were here first?
Playa Marsella and Madera:
Don Irons, who I met through a Nicaragua list on-line, and I bought a piece of property together. We have cut three lovely lots out of a half manzana overlooking Marsella beach and right on the road to the surfing beach Playa Madera. This will make a tight little community of three with lots of room for a common caretaker's house. The lots will sell for $37,500 each. If you want to jump right in a develop it yourself you can buy the whole deal of $95K and I will show you hot to easily run in the power and water. The road and lot work is already done.
This one will be a really fun project for someone. Housing can be built for about $40 a sq foot right now if you are careful.
E-mail me with comments please
ddagger at IBW.com.ni
Dale Dagger
