The popularity of condos in the booming Guanacaste region in Costa Rica has spawned a new industry for local residents and entrepreneurs. As the tiny villages along the coast trade in their wilderness for billion dollar investments, locals are trading old jobs for marketing kits and tool belts. In the wake of the boom, property management services have been springing up to satisfy the needs of absentee property owners who want to rent their homes to tourists as vacation properties.

Since development on the $400 million Peninsula Papagayo project began in 1997, construction and real estate sales in Costa Rica's Guanacaste region have been on a roll. According to Costa Rica's Central Bank, big business foreign investment in real estate has nearly tripled in the past 12 months - most of it in Guanacaste. The majority of these purchases represent investments in the tourism industry with large scale hotels, developments and existing tourism businesses being snapped up by savvy entrepreneurs.

But not all investment in the tourism industry represents big business. Individuals and families attracted by the climate and natural beauty of the area are getting in on the action. Discovering that condominiums make fantastic and affordable vacation homes while providing a viable source of income, people from all over the world are buying up condos in the country. But managing a property when you are out of the country is next to impossible and leaving your vacation home unoccupied for months is downright risky. Absentee owners can return to find they've been robbed or even worse - that their property is being inhabited by squatters.

Many condominium projects address this problem directly by providing property management services as part of the deal at buy-in. Owners can enter their property into the project's rental program and have their interests taken care of. Depending on what level of involvement you wish to have, property management companies will take care of everything - from security to housekeeping. For a monthly fee, you can count on your manager to be your hotelier with a complete package that includes marketing, booking, cleaning, and maintaining the property while on site security removes the risk of unexpected or uninvited guests.