About Bernon
Why Costa Rica. Why Now. Why Us.
The first time I drove the road from Liberia to Tamarindo — windows down, a warm October rain just ending, the dry forest releasing the smell that I now associate with every good thing — I understood something that no spreadsheet or market report had prepared me for: Costa Rica is not just a real estate opportunity. It is a proposition about how to live. The properties come later. That understanding comes first, and it's what Bernon is built around.
My name is Bernon, and I have spent the last fifteen years helping people find their place in this country. I came here the same way most of my clients do — on a trip that was supposed to be two weeks and turned into something permanent. I had a career in finance in Miami, a schedule that left no room for the things that make a life worth the effort, and a growing suspicion that the life I was building was not the one I actually wanted. Costa Rica fixed that suspicion. It gave me the answer I didn't know I was looking for.
Costa Rica is a country that rewards people who pay attention. The best properties, the best communities, the best opportunities — they are almost never the ones that show up at the top of a search engine. They are the ones you find when you know where to look and who to ask.
How We Work
Bernon is not a large brokerage. It is intentionally small — a boutique practice built on the principle that the best real estate counsel is personal, not transactional. I work with a select number of clients at any given time, which means that when you work with me, you work with me. Not with an assistant. Not with a junior agent who gets handed the file. With me, on your schedule, through every step of a process that I know can feel overwhelming from the outside and entirely manageable from the inside once you have the right guide.
My approach is grounded in three things. First, transparency: I will tell you what I actually think about a property, including the things I think are wrong with it, before I tell you the things I think are right. Second, patience: the right property for you may take six months to find, and that is not a failure — it is due diligence. Third, relationships: I have spent fifteen years building connections with the notaries, attorneys, property managers, contractors, and community leaders who can make or break a purchase experience in Costa Rica, and those connections are part of what you get when you work with Bernon.
Our Specialties
We specialize in residential properties in Guanacaste and the Central Pacific — from beachfront estates on the Papagayo Peninsula to compact condos in Manuel Antonio that generate strong vacation rental returns. We work equally well with buyers who are purchasing their forever home, their first investment property, or a trophy asset for occasional use. What we do not do is pretend that every property is the right property, or that every market moment is the right moment. We are here to help you make a good decision, not a fast one.
If you are thinking about Costa Rica — for the first time or the fifteenth — I would like to hear about it. Not to sell you something, but to understand what you are looking for and whether we might be able to help you find it. The best conversations start with listening. Reach out, and let's begin.