03 — Real estate
Roots Costa Rica
Launching 2026
Find your place in Costa Rica.
Roots Costa Rica is a map-first marketplace for buying, selling, and renting property in Costa Rica. Owners and agents list directly. Buyers search on the map, compare listings, make offers, and request viewings — and once an offer is accepted, the closing moves onto one shared timeline where the escrow officer, the agent, the buyer, and the seller work from the same steps, deadlines, and status.
It is built for how property changes hands in Costa Rica: prices in US dollars, Canadian dollars, or colones, a closing-cost estimate with local taxes and fees, a due-diligence checklist that covers title, the survey plan, liens, and the maritime zone, and everything in English and Spanish. Roots coordinates the transaction and is never a party to it — the purchase money moves through your escrow provider, and Roots never holds it.
- Owners and agents list directly
- One shared timeline for the closing
- Roots never holds your purchase money
Features
Search the way you look
- Search on the map, and zoom in to see nearby schools, parks, bus stations, hospitals, and shops.
- Draw an outline on the map to search only inside that area.
- Filter by sale or rent, price, property type, bedrooms, bathrooms, size, amenities, and how recently a listing was posted.
- See prices in US dollars, Canadian dollars, or Costa Rican colones, converted at current exchange rates.
- Compare up to four properties side by side.
- Save a search to be alerted when a new listing matches, and save a listing to hear when its price drops.
Listings from owners and agents
- Owners and agents list directly, with up to 50 photos, a video tour, amenities, and a location on the map.
- Every listing shows how long it has been on the market, any price changes, and similar listings in the same area.
- List from your phone, with photos from the camera and a location from your GPS or a pin on the map.
- Manage your listings from your dashboard, including which ones have an offer in progress.
- Agent profiles show their listings, sales record, and reviews from clients who have actually worked with them.
- Agents can bid to feature a listing on the home page for a week.
Offers and viewings
- Make an offer with a note to the agent; the agent can accept, decline, or counter, and you can respond in turn.
- Request a viewing at a time that suits you; the agent confirms or declines, and you can reschedule or cancel.
- Track your offers and viewing requests from your dashboard, with anything waiting on your response clearly marked.
- Owners who list their own property answer offers and viewing requests themselves.
Know what you are buying
- Estimate your monthly payment and cash to close, including Costa Rica's transfer tax, registry and stamp fees, and notary and legal fees. The figures are estimates, not financial or legal advice.
- Compare a listing with similar ones in the same area: median price, average price per square foot, and price range.
- Work through a due-diligence checklist built for Costa Rica — title study, survey plan, liens, municipal taxes, water concession, and the maritime zone — with private notes.
- Find property lawyers in the Legal Assist directory, and agents in the agent directory.
A closing you can follow
- Start escrow once your offer is accepted, and choose the escrow officer who will run it.
- Follow one shared timeline with the escrow officer, the agent, the buyer, and the seller: milestones, deadlines, and who still has to confirm each step.
- Your escrow officer or agent can ask you for a document, and you upload it straight to the escrow.
- Your escrow officer records the deal's identity-verification status, and anyone on the deal can ask for a refresh.
- Wire instructions are visible only to the buyer and the escrow officer, with a reminder to confirm them by phone before you send money.
- Changes show up live for everyone on the deal, and every action is kept in an audit trail.
- Escrow officers work from their own console: an intake queue, timeline templates, forms, a record of deposits, fees, and payouts, and statements and reports as PDFs.
Messages, alerts, and your account
- Chat live with agents, or use the built-in mailbox for longer messages.
- Get notified about offers, viewings, messages, price drops, and escrow updates in the app, and as push alerts on your phone.
- Report a listing or a person, and block someone to stop messages, new offers, and viewing requests between you; you can unblock them later.
- Protect your account with two-step sign-in using an authenticator app.
- Download a copy of your data at any time, and delete your account yourself once any escrow you are part of is completed or canceled.
- Switch between English and Spanish at any time.
- On iPhone and Android, browse and save listings, message agents, make offers, request viewings, and follow your escrow's status.
Why you can trust it
Roots coordinates the transaction and is never a party to it — it is not a broker, law firm, notary, lender, or escrow agent. The purchase money moves through your escrow provider, and Roots never holds it. An offer made on Roots expresses intent only; the sale itself is completed through a formal written agreement with a notary or attorney.
Sensitive details stay with the people who need them. Wire instructions are shown only to the buyer and the escrow officer, and identity documents only to the escrow officer and the person who provided them. Card payments use the payment processor's own form, so Roots never sees your full card number. Hidden location data is removed from the photos you upload, and Roots uses no advertising cookies or cross-site tracking and never sells your data.
Version updates
Every build below is pre-release — Roots Costa Rica has not launched, and its iPhone and Android apps are not in either app store yet. The two newest entries collect changes made since 0.20.0 that do not have a version number yet.
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Current build
Pre-release
Stronger sign-in and safer photo uploads
- When two-step sign-in is on, it now protects everything your account does, and the iPhone and Android apps ask for your code too.
- A password-reset link now lets you choose a new password straight away.
- Hidden location data is removed from the photos you upload.
- Video tours load only when you press play.
- Blocking someone now also stops new offers and viewing requests between you, and rescheduling a viewing takes a single step.
- If the service has a problem, you now see a clear message with a retry button instead of an empty search, and every control shows a visible keyboard focus.
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Interim build
Reporting, blocking, and reliable live updates
- Report a listing or a person, and block someone from messaging you; you can unblock them from your profile.
- Saved-search alert emails and the weekly digest now include an unsubscribe link.
- Chat messages now send reliably, and dashboards update live.
- Escrow now opens only after your offer has been accepted.
- Changing your email address now needs confirmation from both the old and the new address.
- The phone app now shows your escrow's status, lets you accept or decline an escrow invitation, and keeps recent listings on screen when you are offline.
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Version 0.20.0
Faster pages and clearer privacy
- Listings with many photos load much faster, and the phone app opens without waiting on the network.
- The map groups nearby listings into clusters you can click to zoom in.
- A new Accessibility Statement joins the Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and Cookie notice, in English and Spanish, and animations follow your device's reduced-motion setting.
- Your data download now also covers in-app emails, browsing history, registered devices, and your own answers on escrow forms.
- Deleting your account now also erases the text of messages you wrote and the documents you uploaded.
- The phone app now switches fully to Spanish, and signing up in the app records your acceptance of the Terms and Privacy Policy.
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Version 0.19.0
Tighter access to escrow details
- Security hardening across escrows, reviews, and live updates.
- Wire instructions are now visible only to the buyer and the escrow officer.
- Reviews now come only from people who have worked with the agent, with one review per client.
- Removed listings can no longer be opened from an old link.
- Web sign-in moved to a more secure method.
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Version 0.18.0 – 0.18.1
Push notifications and a faster map
- Notifications now reach your phone as push alerts.
- The map now loads the listings in the area you are looking at as you pan and zoom.
- When the Terms change, you are asked to review and accept the new version.
- Price history now appears only for listings whose price has actually changed, and agents' MLS numbers show as pending until they are checked.
- Opening a dashboard from an old link no longer shows a blank page.
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Version 0.17.0
Native iPhone and Android apps
- Browsing, the map, saved listings, messages, offers, viewings, notifications, and dashboards, now on iPhone and Android.
- Create a listing from your phone, with photos from the camera and a location picked on the map.
- Stay signed in on your phone and your computer at the same time, with live updates on both.
- Profile pictures now come only from your own uploads.
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Version 0.12 – 0.16
Offers, viewings, and buyer tools
- Save a search and get an alert when a new listing matches.
- Make an offer and negotiate with counter-offers, or request a viewing for the agent to confirm.
- A Costa Rica mortgage and closing-cost calculator, market comparisons, and a due-diligence checklist on listings.
- Draw an area on the map to search only inside it.
- A Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, and Cookie notice, plus self-service data download and account deletion.
- Loading placeholders keep pages steady while content arrives, alongside security hardening.
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Version 0.1 – 0.11
The first builds
- Browse listings as a list or on a map, with dashboards for buyers, sellers, agents, and escrow officers.
- An escrow workflow with live chat between the people on the deal.
- Every screen in English and Spanish, with a language switcher.
- Two-step sign-in with an authenticator app.
- Address search, plus nearby schools, parks, and transit on the map.
- Owners can list their own property, and escrow officers can collect documents and export statements and reports as PDFs.
Build with Rippre