About Us
Everyone wants to know about the pretty one first, so let’s get right to it. Cheryl was raised in Pueblo, Colorado in a self-employed family with 3 brothers. Her father was a boilermaker, and I had no clue what that even meant until I saw the huge building he had with these humongous machines that looked like they could do instant damage to humans if there were the slightest mistake. He ran this business for over 50 years before he passed and then one of her brothers took over. Her mother got involved early on in the real estate business of buying homes for remodeling and renting so Cheryl comes by her real estate experience from an early age.
She moved to the “big city”, Dallas, Texas in 1977 and began her own real estate experience by first obtaining a broker’s license and selling single family homes. This evolved into her interest in real estate appraisals for residential and commercial properties. She grew this company for over 25 years, along the way obtaining numerous licenses from the Board of Realtors and Texas Appraisal and Certification Board. Her appraisal and real estate experience specialized in single family homes, condos, and multi-unit buildings. I had to help her once on a trip to Las Vegas for a week, then on to Hawaii for another week to appraise various commercial properties of a deceased individual. It cannot be said that I have not sacrificed for the benefits of our relationship!
We bought a house when we got married and then started our real estate company, GHL Investments, with the two homes we were living in before we got married being our first inventory. That later grew to 5 homes and 3 condos and numerous buys, rehabs and flips. We continued this until our decision to move to Costa Rica and we then sold everything and the rest is history.
My story is not quite the same, but nonetheless a childhood of some preparation for our move here and the pursuits we have chosen. I grew up in a military family and lived in Puerto Rico for a few years, then four years in Panama, and then on to El Paso, Texas where my father retired and my 90 year old mother still lives there, playing bridge everyday and sending me email jokes that all of Costa Rica relies upon.
I crammed my 4 year degree in Human Resources into 7 years at Texas Tech University and then practiced human resources in a hospital, Calvin Klein, IBM, and Gerber Camsco. Seeking a desire to make the money my childhood friend Russ (without his degree) was making, he encouraged me to start an audio-visual business and for the next 20 years I had that company while we continued our real estate business on the side. We were both too busy, too stressed, but at the very least we can say we were somewhat successful.
Every year, for 17 years, Cheryl and I visited Hawaii, all the while wishing we could retire there, but it just seemed out of financial reach until we visited Costa Rica, where all of what we liked in Hawaii was here in Costa Rica without the price tag.
The longer we have been here, the happier we have become with our decision. We have met more and more people and probably have more and closer friends here than we did in Dallas after 24 years. It is a special breed that comes to Costa Rica as they are obviously a free spirit, bold, adventurous and seeking a change from the lifestyle in the States, or Canada, or wherever. That means there’s quite a lot in common just to start with. And most of us are financial refugees, which means we seek to live in a tropical paradise at a lower cost. There is more “About Us” on our website, CostaRicaLandToday.
