Accomodation Costs

[Ian Soler]

We are planning to rent for a few years and hopefully travel before settling down and buying a home again.

When I look on the net at rental accomodation in virtually any city in the world all I can find are over priced vacation rentals.

Say for example I wanted to spend 6 months to a year in any of the following places, where can I find non price gouging home rentals? We have not decided where yet as we are trying to establish costs.

La Paz Mexico
Puerto Viarta Mexico
Panama
Thailand
Indonesia
And anywhere in the USA for that matter.

Any information would be helpful.

Ian

 

[Mr._johngalt]

We had the same problem in searching for outside
the USA rentals. We also considered relocating
as ex-pats but when we got into all of the details
it seemed too much bother (I am quite hassle averse).
Thus, we have now eliminated that option in favor
of locations in the USA whcih fit our requirements.
I also think that neither of us would enjoy any sort of
long term traveling. We both need a home base.

 

[haha]

"How to find living costs in foreign city?"

Hi Ian, welcome. I am planning a similar stay. My two best approaches have been to ask friends/acquaintances from the country in interest, and putting a query onto Google.

Eg, for Latin America, Apartamentos para alquilar, Panama. Also can look for local newspapers online, which mostly all have real estate listings. I think real estate is "inmuebles". There is a website www.casavaca.com , for vacation rentals.

While you are at it, check out the personals. Lots of these latinas would seem to like to go somewhere-anywhere-else.

Mikey

 

[fleg9bo]

Hello. This is my first post over here--I'm a long-time denizen of the REHP at TMF.

For Mexico, try the website www.mexconnect.com. It's a pay site now, with some free info and articles. I used to read it a lot when it was all free.

It has tons of info on Mexico and its own set of message boards, although I can't promise that they haven't dwindled since the fee was instituted. There are email addresses of expats living all over the country who will be happy to share information.

Cost now is $5/month or $30/yr. If I were serious about moving there, I would sign up right away for at least a month and start browsing.

I've made 12 trips to Latin America and seen lots of places for rent that weren't overpriced vacation rentals (including in La Paz). But I don't know how you'd locate them from the U.S. Often there's just a sign in the window or a local real estate outfit that doesn't have a website is handling it.

Good luck.

--fleg

 

[ShokWaveRider]

Thanks for all the great info. We will probably go to Panama and visit and look while we are there. That is probably the best way. It would help if we spoke Spanish of course but hey, life is a challenge isn't it?

 

[Paul Heidenreich]

I'm was an early retiree (old one now) and live on the beach outside Cabo San Lucas Mexico. We're about 100 miles south of La Paz. La Paz is a great city and I'm sure you could find very inexpensive home rentals, possibly even a house sitting deal. Best place to start the search is on the internet. You could possibly place an ad in the Gringo Gazette. www.gringogazette.com

 

[baanista]

Ian,

I think you are going to have to pick a place and then go there and wing it. Looking up real estate agents might give you some contacts to start with, but things are likely to be pretty informal in a low cost area. The advice you often see for Latin America is to find a neighborhood that looks like you would like to live in and then stop and ask in the little shops if they know of a place. Obviously, knowing some Espanol would help a lot.

One good way to ease into an area would be to sign up for a few weeks at a local immersion language school. They tend to offer low priced accomadations with a local family which would ease your initial expense plus give you a feel for the community. The schools often seem to have half day programs so you don't have to spend all of your time studying.

Baanista