Finding an Apartment

Finding an apartment in a foreign country when you’re not there may seem like a daunting task, but with the Internet it’s pretty easy. Once I decided to make the move, I immediately went to Craigslist Buenos Aires to see what apartments were available. I had some specific requirements – furnished, located in Palermo Soho, accepts dogs, has some outdoor space, and is as roomy as possible.  Luckily, Craigslist lets you search and sort by apartment features and area. In addition, since my Spanish is very basic, it’s helpful that many of the ads are in English. If you’re fluent in Spanish, you probably have a number of other options available to you that I did not.

Craigslist has both owners and real estate brokers who post ads. In many cases, the real estate brokers will charge a fee for finding an apartment which is usually one month’s rent. This is a question you should ask up front if it is not specified in the ad. Foreigners will also be charge a much higher rate than locals.  This is especially for short-term, furnished rentals. Anyhow, I was willing to pay a bit more for the first six months so that I could find a clean, safe place and learn my way around. I figured I could move after the first six months and find a better place if we had to.

Luckily, on the first day of searching, I found an apartment that looked perfect.  It was in Palermo Soho, was large, and while it did not have outdoor space, had an indoor pool! The owner was listing it and there was no fee, plus his English was very good so it was easy to email back and forth. He sent over photos of the apartment:

It looked great! It was a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I didn’t want any problems, so I decided it made sense to do it for the first six months at least.  I sent over the U.S. $510 deposit.

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Not Everything Goes According to Plan – Part II

As much as you may plan, not everything always goes according to that plan. Case in point: while all my luggage made it in one piece, not all the contents of the luggage made it in one piece.  I just discovered this today when I moved into my new apartment and I hooked up my computer and … Read more

Moving Day

The last few days have been pretty crazy. I left Vermont on Sunday after finalizing all the packing up and preparing the house for the ski season. The last couple of days in NYC have been filled with running around – returning my leased car, sending some final pieces of mail and FedEx, returning license … Read more

A Great Resource for Those Moving to Buenos Aires

When I originally started contemplating making a move to Buenos Aires, naturally I went to the web to start researching what was involved and what I might expect. I found a lot of great sites – some of which are listed under my favorite links on the right. I also ordered an ebook by Laura … Read more

Bringing My Stuff

I’m planning on being in Buenos Aires for a year or two, and since I heard that shipping anything from the US is a real pain in the ass, I’m planning on bringing everything I need with me. This includes all my clothes and personal items, as well as laptops, small electronics (Vonage router, wireless router, … Read more