Moving to and living in...Argentina

Apartment for rent in Buenos Aires on Aguero

Apartment for rent:
This was just posted in the Yahoo Group so I wanted to share it. I don't know anything personally and give no guarantees to it, you're on your own, simply sharing some info.

A friend of mine has an apt. in Aguero, between French and Juncal. It is on the 6th.floor, 1 big room with a balcon, AC, TV, micro, bedding, telephone, etc.She will pay all the expenses. Everything just renovated. She wants 450 dolars per month. Place is good for 1 or  2 people. Contact Adriana at 4803-7794 . Shula.

Tourist & short term apartment rentals in Buenos Aires

Recently, apartment rental companies have been popping up all over Buenos Aires. I think it's great that this is happening. It brings $ into the economy from tourism and provides a new niche in the service industry that benefits tourists. The problem is not all provide a high level of service.

So, in response to all of the emails I've had from people who are looking for decent, well-priced, short-term apartment rentals, I'm posting a link to someone I feel I can recommend because we've used them three times already, and the service has been exellent on every occasion.

The company is Zen Argentina, and the owner's name is Mariana. She speaks English, she's very nice and extremely professional. The best part is that she will go out of her way to make sure you are comfortable. On our first trip she took the time to explain how the answering service worked, left us maps of the neighborhoods, called our taxi when it was time to leave for the airport (since my Spanish wasn't good enough), and just generally made our stay comfortable.

Although her website is still in the final stages, feel free to take a look anyway and contact her if you have any questions.

If anyone decides to rent her apartments please let me know if you are as happy as we were.

Chau!

Useful links for Apartment Rentals & Real Estate in Argentina

Here a just a few rental and real estate links for Argentina. Most are in Spanish but if you can navigate the Spanish part with someone they can be very useful. I'll continue to add more links as I can.

If you want to visit Mendoza the Anatabi Villa is a beautifully redone place to vacation.
The Anabtawi Vacation villa, Mendoza, Argentina

Top Inmobiliario and SISTEMA DIXON are similar to the MLS system in the United States.

Reporte Inmobiliario provides links to current real estate activity in Argentina.

Publicasas Clasificados Inmobiliarios offers an online search as well as print version.

Zen Argentina offers short-term tourist rentals. I've used their services three times and highly recommend them.

Chau!

Featured Links & Sidebar Links

I've realized that the sidebar links have grown immensely and the list has gotten long. Although I could hide them under one header, I'm hesitant because I think that people (in the interest of saving time)  want to have information at their fingertips. Thus, in an effort to make it easier to navigate this blog, I've decided to begin featuring links in some of the posts. I will always specify that it is a featured link and then make the hyperlink available in the post as hyperlinks, as well as the sidebar.

As always, I am open to, and appreciate, any comments about whether this is helpful or not.

Thanks to all my readers out there for the great feedback I've been receiving!

Chau y suerte!

Our real estate angel

We have managed to find our house! After a week of intense agony dealing with the agents, owners, and the market here in general, our angel of an agent managed to make us the deal of the century. We are convinced that because it is a small family run operation that values the client and is willing to find a way through the obstacle course known as the Argentine real estate market, that we found a solution.

Our first offer never finalized. They were not willing to accept a one year pre-payment (or even a two year that someone else offered them.) People here really do value the guarantee above everything else.

So we went on to our second choice. The owner's shady agent tried to take advantage of our situation and asked for a higher rent, higher commission, etc. etc. Our agent told him no deal and so we continued looking, sure that we would be returning to Miami having only accomplished getting our medical insurance.

Then the unthinkable happened. He and his brother put their heads together and came up with an amazing place. The owner was willing to rent to us if we prepaid the year, but also gave us some flexibility on the price. The house is huge more than 350 sq meters or more than 3600 sq. feet, and the yard is 1300 sq meters or more than 15000 sq feet. It is in a great location in Acassuso (within the area of San Isidro in the northern suburb of Buenos Aires) just a couple of blocks from the Tren de la Costa and is EXACTLY what we were looking for!

Thus, there are possibilties in this market, even if it seems that your needs are impossible. You just have to have someone willing to go to bat for you; unfortunately, there are more that are willing to HIT you with the bat instead so as to take advantage of the situation!

Let me know if you are also having difficulties in the market or if you were able to navigate through to a deal you were okay with.

More to come upon our return to Miami, at which time I will try to address some of the comments I have received, as well as talk about our experience getting our medical insurance.

chau y suerte

Cost to rent house in northern suburb - Zona Norte - Buenos Aires

It's that time again. Bills are sitting piled on the desk waiting to be paid. And we're about to cough up our rent payment of $2,400. (It kills us to pay this every month now, knowing what we could be paying in Argentina.) When we sold our house in August (for a nice profit after just 7 months), we decided to rent a house on Miami Beach while we decided whether to buy again or maybe move out of state or the country altogether.

Anyway, in September, after several  contracts fell through because the properties were overvalued and wouldn't appraise, we decided to take a break and get out of Miami. Mexico was one option because I loved it and knew the cost of living was low.  Unfortunately, Hurricane Rita threw a wrench into that. So, on to Plan B, off to Argentina, which we had been planning to visit in November, so we just moved it up a bit.

Funny thing is, we never did make it Mexico this Fall at all. Instead, we ended up in Argentina not once, but twice, drawn by the feeling there and the 3:1 currency ratio. We were amazed, because for an ex-pat the cost of living is already laughably cheap, and after checking around, found out the cost of renting a house is, frankly, sick compared to the U.S.   

Of course, we could stay in Miami, or for that matter move somewhere else in the States.  But  the cost of housing here is really expensive now and we also have two big dogs and three cats which means finding a house to rent in the U.S. is extremely difficult. Strange thing for a culture that reveres its pets if you ask me.

On both visits, we went into the Zona Norte where there are more houses, because since we have two big dogs and three cats, an apartment is a bit out of the question.  Just for reference, the main community in the Zona Norte or northern suburbs is San Isidro and includes Beccar, Acassuso, and Martinez. (I plan to talk more about these communities individually and what they offer, in future posts.)

For instance, our house in Miami is a small 1,400 sq/ft, 2/2, just a few blocks from the beach. Small yard, no pool, but at least it's got hurricane shutters!!! 

But, back to Buenos Aires. In the Zona Norte, it's possible to find, and we did actually visit, nice sized houses for rent with a beautiful back yard, complete with pool and security.  One example that we would have signed on the spot if we were ready, was a 2,400 sq/ft, 3/3 with an updated kitchen, pool, fenced yard, backing to a huge park, and the huge master bedroom looked out on that park. The cost??? $2,700 Pesos per month....equivalent in U.S. dollars? $900 DOLLARS!!!!! and the house was absolutely adorable.  A far cry from our house in Miami, 1,400 sq/ft, 2/2, just a few blocks from the beach. Small yard, no pool, but at least it's got hurricane shutters!!! 

The prices in the Zona Norte generally run anywhere from $1,000 to upwards of $5,000, depending upon location, amenities, size of the house, etc. and often you can negotiate the price a bit.

Here are some recent postings:

3 BEDROOMS RESIDENTIAL AREA 20 YEARS 160SQM VERY WELL KEPT MAID'S QUARTERS 2 BATHROOMS LAUNDRYROOM PHONE BBQ AREA BBQ SWIMMING POOL $1,000 US

6 BEDROOMS RESIDENTIAL AREA 36 YEARS 806SQM VERY WELL KEPT MAID'S QUARTERS 4 BATHROOMS PLAYROOM LAUNDRYROOM PHONE BBQ AREA BBQ SWIMMING POOL, $5,500 US
3 BEDROOMS RESIDENTIAL AREA 30 YEARS 350SQM VERY WELL KEPT MAID'S QUARTERS 2 BATHROOMS PLAYROOM LAUNDRYROOM PHONE GARAGE BBQ AREA BBQ SWIMMING POOL $3,500 U.S.

It's also important to understand the differences between doing a short-term rental (6 months or less) and a long-term renter (more than 6 months) but I plan to talk about that in one of my next posts.

Oh yes. I forgot something. You know the problem with the pets? Well, it's much less of a problem if you rent a house in the suburbs. Everybody has pets, especially big dogs (of course one  of the reasons people have big dogs is for security) but hey, welcome to suburban city life. It's not perfect anywhere that you go.

Well, needless to say, if we didn't have a couple of things in the fire right now in Miami, and we were ready, we would have been spending Christmas in Buenos Aires.  But, we still have a lot of things to wrap up before moving, including working on preparing the paperwork for our rentista visa.

I hope to get one more post out before Christmas so please keep tuned and feel free to email me with comments or questions.