That has informed us for this year's trip, and we'll be staying in Langosta/Tamarindo, Potrero/Flamingo, and Hermosa (Guanacaste not Jaco).Of course, there are tons of beautiful places in CR, and the better climate (read: less hot) is found at higher elevations. 

After reading all your answers on this thread, I am more likely to try it out. 

The one thing I will say is that in reading a lot and watching a lot of podcasts the one thing a lot of the more prominent investors who have 500 plus units say is that the one thing they regret is the deals they flipped early for cheap profit or the deals that they sold and did not keep.

Start by building a solid team, analyzing deals carefully, and making your first purchase to test and refine your strategy.Good luck!

At another property with just the sidewalk I let the tenants take care of it, but the liability of these steep stairs makes it too important for it to be haphazard or me having to scold them to shovel and salt the walk and steps.I know in snowy areas people with houses contract plowing for the winter at a flat rate.

Makes me think they could be too busy taking care of a new baby to attend to guest issues? 

There are a couple of things that come to mind, if a payment is missed the lender cares, if the servicer goes out of business or misses a substitution of trustee, the lender cares, if the borrower goes to the lender to try to get removed from the loan (usually to buy another house) the lender cares, if the property gets caught up in a bankruptcy or divorce, the court cares and that means the lender gets involved.

You can also search Google and read reviews.

Read books and maybe take on the occasional 3 day seminar. 

I just finished reading The ABCs of Real Estate Investing and ABCs of Buying Rental Property by Ken McElroy.