Highlights
- 20+ years in Costa Rica: Brad has lived on the Nicoya Peninsula since 2003.
- Former property developer & business owner: He and his wife created and operated Villas Hermosas, a boutique beachfront retreat in Playa Hermosa.
- Multiple communities, firsthand experience: Brad has lived in Playa Hermosa, Santa Teresa, Delicias, and Montezuma.
- A perspective beyond real estate: His experience includes property ownership, development, hospitality, family life, and long-term investment decisions.
- Now helping others buy in Costa Rica: Brad brings that experience to 2CR Santa Teresa to help clients find properties aligned with their goals and lifestyle.
Some people discover Costa Rica on vacation and decide they would like to live there someday.
Brad Shaw took a different route.
In 2003, Brad left behind a corporate finance career in Calgary, Canada, and moved to Costa Rica with his wife, Tara, looking for something that felt simpler, more meaningful, and more connected to the way they wanted to live.
What began with a piece of raw beachfront jungle in Playa Hermosa would eventually become a family business, a boutique hotel, multiple property and investment experiences, and more than two decades of living on the Nicoya Peninsula.
Today, that history has led Brad to a new chapter: helping other people navigate Costa Rica real estate with the perspective of someone who has spent years not only buying property here, but building, developing, operating a business, raising a family, and moving between several of the peninsula's communities.
As the newest member of the 2CR Santa Teresa team, Brad brings something particularly valuable to clients looking at property in Santa Teresa, Playa Hermosa, Montezuma, and the surrounding areas: firsthand experience of what it actually means to build a life here.
From Corporate Finance to Costa Rica
Brad's move to Costa Rica wasn't originally about becoming a real estate professional.
In 2003, he and Tara purchased a raw piece of beachfront jungle in Playa Hermosa, north of Santa Teresa. Their idea was ambitious but straightforward: create a small boutique hotel where visitors could experience the natural environment and laid-back lifestyle that had attracted them to the area in the first place.
Then life intervened.
While waiting for the necessary permits, Brad and Tara welcomed their first child. Becoming parents changed the way they looked at the community around them.
They began noticing something that was easy to overlook from the perspective of a visitor: families needed places to stay that actually worked for them.
That observation became the foundation for what would eventually become Villas Hermosas, a boutique beachfront retreat that opened in 2006.
The property became a destination for families visiting the Nicoya Peninsula and gave Brad something that is difficult to acquire through market research alone: years of direct experience operating a property and business in the region.
He wasn't simply observing Santa Teresa and Playa Hermosa as an investor.
He was living the reality of owning property here.
Building More Than a Property
There is an important distinction between knowing a place as a real estate market and knowing it as a community.
Brad's experience sits firmly in the second category.
For more than a decade, he and his family lived in Santa Teresa while operating Villas Hermosas. During those years, the area changed considerably. Santa Teresa evolved from a relatively small surf destination into one of Costa Rica's most internationally recognized coastal communities.
That evolution brought opportunities, but it also brought new considerations for people buying property.
Infrastructure, accessibility, development, tourism, schools, services, construction, and the changing expectations of buyers all became part of the landscape.
Brad experienced those changes from inside the community.
And because his experience wasn't limited to residential ownership, he also learned the realities of running a hospitality business, developing property, managing investment decisions, and adapting to a rapidly changing local market.
Those experiences are particularly relevant today because buying property in Santa Teresa isn't simply a matter of finding a house that looks good in photographs.
The surrounding community matters.
Access matters.
The location's relationship to beaches, services, schools, roads, and neighboring development matters.
And perhaps most importantly, the reason someone is buying matters.
A property that makes sense for a family may be very different from one that works for a retirement plan, a vacation home, or an investment strategy.
Seeing the Peninsula From Different Perspectives
In 2018, Brad and his family relocated to Delicias, where they could be closer to Futuro Verde, the school attended by their children.
The move provided another perspective on life on the peninsula.
Rather than experiencing Costa Rica through a single community, Brad and his family became familiar with another part of the region and another style of day-to-day living.
That distinction is useful when talking about the Nicoya Peninsula because there isn't really one single ''Costa Rica lifestyle.''
Santa Teresa has its own character.
Playa Hermosa has another.
Montezuma offers something different again.
Delicias and the communities further inland have their own rhythm and practical advantages.
For buyers coming from abroad, those differences aren't always obvious during a short vacation or even during a first property search.
Someone may arrive thinking they want to be in Santa Teresa and discover that another community better matches how they actually want to live.
Conversely, someone may initially underestimate the value of being close to a particular beach, school, commercial area, or road connection.
Brad's own history across the peninsula gives him an unusually practical reference point for those conversations.
From Santa Teresa to Montezuma
After selling Villas Hermosas in 2021, Brad and his family eventually made Montezuma their permanent home.
By that point, his relationship with the peninsula had extended well beyond the original dream of owning a beachfront property.
He had lived in multiple communities.
He had raised children here.
He had built and operated a business.
He had bought, developed, and sold property.
And he had experienced the peninsula through very different stages of its growth.
That accumulated experience is what now informs Brad's approach to real estate.
For him, property isn't an isolated transaction.
It is connected to the broader question of how someone wants to live.
What Brad Brings to 2CR Santa Teresa
Today, Brad's two children are attending university in Canada, opening the door to another chapter of his life in Costa Rica.
His next step is to put his local knowledge to work helping others navigate the same decision that he made more than two decades ago: whether and how to build a life in this part of the world.
As a Santa Teresa real estate agent, Brad can offer clients more than an overview of properties currently available on the market.
His experience spans several sides of the equation:
- Property ownership: Brad understands what it means to own property in Costa Rica over the long term, rather than simply purchasing and moving on.
- Development: His experience transforming raw beachfront jungle into a functioning hospitality property gives him firsthand perspective on the realities behind development.
- Business ownership: Operating Villas Hermosas provided years of practical experience with tourism, guests, operations, and the commercial side of property ownership.
- Local living: More than two decades on the Nicoya Peninsula have given Brad familiarity with the region beyond its most visible tourist areas.
- Family life: Raising children here gave him a perspective on schools, communities, and the practical considerations that can easily be overlooked by buyers focused primarily on the property itself.
- Investment decisions: Having personally bought, developed, operated, and sold property gives Brad a perspective grounded in actual experience rather than theory.
That combination matters because there is no universal definition of a ''good'' Costa Rican property.
The right purchase depends on the buyer.
An investor may prioritize income potential, development possibilities, or long-term appreciation. Someone purchasing a retirement home may care more about accessibility, services, community, and ease of ownership. A family may have an entirely different set of priorities.
The job of a good real estate advisor is therefore not simply to show the most attractive properties.
It is to understand why the client is buying and help determine whether the property actually supports that objective.
A Different Kind of Local Knowledge
Costa Rica has changed considerably since Brad first arrived in 2003.
So has the Nicoya Peninsula.
Santa Teresa is no longer the small surf community it once was. Montezuma, Playa Hermosa, and the surrounding areas have also evolved as more international buyers, entrepreneurs, families, and investors have discovered the region.
That growth creates opportunities, but it also makes local context increasingly important.
A buyer researching Costa Rica from overseas can find thousands of listings, investment articles, market reports, and social media posts.
What is much harder to find is someone who can say:
''I have actually lived through this.''
Brad can.
He knows what the peninsula looked like before today's level of international attention. He has experienced the changes that came with growth. He has owned property, developed property, operated a business, raised a family, relocated between communities, and ultimately chosen to make Montezuma home.
That doesn't mean every property decision is straightforward. Quite the opposite.
It means Brad understands that buying in Costa Rica requires looking beyond the obvious selling points and asking better questions.
What is the location really like year-round?
How does the community fit the buyer's lifestyle?
What does the property offer today, and what could it realistically become?
What are the practical considerations that may not appear in a listing?
And perhaps most importantly: does this particular property make sense for this particular buyer?
Helping Others Find Their Own Piece of Paradise
Brad's Costa Rica story started with a decision to leave one life behind and build another.
More than twenty years later, he finds himself helping other people explore that same possibility.
Some will be looking for a vacation home close to the beach.
Others may be considering an investment.
Some may be planning retirement.
Others may be looking for land on which to build something of their own.
The properties will be different. The budgets will be different. The motivations will be different.
But the underlying decision is often similar: Can I see myself building a life here?
Brad has already answered that question for himself.
And after more than two decades on the Nicoya Peninsula, he brings to 2CR Santa Teresa the kind of local perspective that comes from actually doing it.
Welcome to the 2CR Santa Teresa team, Brad. We're excited to have you with us!
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