Where do you want to live? What country in Latin America have you always wanted to move to? Having the skills of living like the locals and applying the money-saving skills into your daily life gives anyone the opportunity to live in any country in south and central America of their choosing. Think of all the options opened to you and countries you could move to.
We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We lived in Cuenca Ecuador for five years and now we are in Salinas Ecuador where our adventure continues.We vlog several times per week where we share crucial insights and every day experiences to help others see what its really like to live in a Latin American country.
Welcome to Gringo Good Samaritans, integrated with our 8 years of living in Cuenca Ecuador and traveling the world. We create informative videos and articles helping people come to awareness of what's happening in our world so they can enjoy their retire early lifestyle with their families, healthy, happy and free!
Showing posts with label budget rentals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budget rentals. Show all posts
Sunday, October 16, 2016
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Fantastic 4-Bed 4-Bath Home, Asking $380 and it's Negotiable!!
This home is in superb condition with beautiful hardwood floors. It even has a working fireplace for those chilly Cuenca mornings. Best thing is it is only a block from three bus lines, yet tucked far enough back from the noise and traffic!! Great neighborhood with small grocery stores, restaurants, bakeries, ice cream shops and more! We don't think this one will be on the market long.
Asking $380 but is negotiable - make offer! You know how to reach us!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
$230 Home Rental in Cuenca Ecuador: Video Tour with $300 Dollar Cuenca Rentals!
This NEW home in Cuenca has a guardian/caretaker in a private gated community. It is a ten minute bus ride to Supermaxi grocery store. There is a $25 maintenance fee with this home. So for just $255 per month you can have a brand new home in a quiet, peaceful, safe Ecuadorian neighborhood! Not bad, eh? For more information (sq footage and photos) go to $300 Dollar Cuenca Rentals.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Pets and Furnished Rentals in Cuenca Ecuador
Our pets are our wonderful friends that give us much love and companionship. For many of us older folks our pets have taken the place of our children who have married and left home. More than half of the foreigners that come to Ecuador bring their beloved pets with them.
We have encountered a few foreigners who are looking for a rental that have both dogs and cats with them. One expat couple we know brought three cats and a dog to Cuenca from the states. Another couple brought a huge dog with them. All three families with pets have something in common—they are looking for a furnished or semi-furnished rental.
Most apartments and condos do not allow pets, even when the place is without furniture. Although, there are exceptions but you will pay for it. Your best bet for housing when you have pets is a house with a yard rather than an apartment or condo because sometimes they will have a small green area, and or, a terrazzo for your pet, and of course because of this the landlord is more catering to those expats with pets.
Don’t you think it is only fair to your pet to have a yard, even if it is small? No dog likes to be cooped up without a yard to roam around in. Cats are different however, they are completely happy being cooped up in an apartment.
Pets and Furniture
We know that your pet would not scratch the furniture wood, or pee in the same corner on the hardwood floor, or get fur all over the furniture, but try and tell the landlord that. Most landlords do not allow pets in their furnished rentals and if they do, you will pay up to four times more.
Finding a two or three bedroom furnished at the local rental price rarely come up and the landlord will most-likely not allow pets…of course you can always ask, but you won’t pay local rent. We know this because we personally have asked about pets in many of the furnished rentals.
We’re not saying don’t bring your pets, but we are saying that it might be a lot more difficult to find a furnished rental that will take indoor pets. It certainly is not impossible, but just more difficult. But money always talks, it’s up to you if you want to over-spend on a furnished rental.
Here are a couple of things to consider if you are coming to Cuenca with your pet(s).
1) Don’t have an expectation of furnished at the local rental rates. Expect to pay $200 to $400 more for furnished. If you have pets expect to pay a hefty deposit to the landlord, just in case something gets ruined. You know your pet is clean and not destructive, but try and tell the landlord that after she just spent $1,800 on a new living room set.
2) Trying to find a furnished rental that will actually take your pet(s) will usually take some time; it could take days, or weeks until you find a furnished house or apartment that will accept pets. So, you can’t be in a hurry.
3) If you have pets, we recommend getting an unfurnished at the local rental rate and buy your own furniture. We recommend this for longer term stays just because in the long run it is much cheaper and there are more of the unfurnished rentals to go around and you will find a rental home much quicker and at a much nicer rental price!
4) So if you know ahead of time that you will be bringing your pet(s) we suggest you make room in your budget for buying your own furniture ($5k to 7K) for when you get here.
And here’s another thing to think about with furnished rentals. Many of the furnished rentals may have furniture that is not your style and you will end up not enjoying your new rental. We know personally that many of the homes and apartments that are furnished in the local price range have the bare minimum of furniture and it is 70’s and 80’s style furniture.
There is a lot of demand for even vacant houses with yards, and the local market is responding by raising rental rates. Our recommendation is: don't put yourself under time pressure to have to sign on any rental. This way, you can take your time and negotiate a more appropriate local rental rate rather than a foreigner rate.
The worst offender in that regard, as you might well have already guessed is: tah dah, craigslist. But if you're a reader of our DIY Cuenca Landing Guide, you already knew this.
For more, practical, how to, money and time saving advice and an inside look on how to live well on a budget in Ecuador see the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide today and if you want some assistance with finding a locally priced vacant long term rental see http://300dollarcuencarentals.blogspot.com/
We have encountered a few foreigners who are looking for a rental that have both dogs and cats with them. One expat couple we know brought three cats and a dog to Cuenca from the states. Another couple brought a huge dog with them. All three families with pets have something in common—they are looking for a furnished or semi-furnished rental.
Most apartments and condos do not allow pets, even when the place is without furniture. Although, there are exceptions but you will pay for it. Your best bet for housing when you have pets is a house with a yard rather than an apartment or condo because sometimes they will have a small green area, and or, a terrazzo for your pet, and of course because of this the landlord is more catering to those expats with pets.
Don’t you think it is only fair to your pet to have a yard, even if it is small? No dog likes to be cooped up without a yard to roam around in. Cats are different however, they are completely happy being cooped up in an apartment.
Pets and Furniture
We know that your pet would not scratch the furniture wood, or pee in the same corner on the hardwood floor, or get fur all over the furniture, but try and tell the landlord that. Most landlords do not allow pets in their furnished rentals and if they do, you will pay up to four times more.
Finding a two or three bedroom furnished at the local rental price rarely come up and the landlord will most-likely not allow pets…of course you can always ask, but you won’t pay local rent. We know this because we personally have asked about pets in many of the furnished rentals.
We’re not saying don’t bring your pets, but we are saying that it might be a lot more difficult to find a furnished rental that will take indoor pets. It certainly is not impossible, but just more difficult. But money always talks, it’s up to you if you want to over-spend on a furnished rental.
Here are a couple of things to consider if you are coming to Cuenca with your pet(s).
1) Don’t have an expectation of furnished at the local rental rates. Expect to pay $200 to $400 more for furnished. If you have pets expect to pay a hefty deposit to the landlord, just in case something gets ruined. You know your pet is clean and not destructive, but try and tell the landlord that after she just spent $1,800 on a new living room set.
2) Trying to find a furnished rental that will actually take your pet(s) will usually take some time; it could take days, or weeks until you find a furnished house or apartment that will accept pets. So, you can’t be in a hurry.
3) If you have pets, we recommend getting an unfurnished at the local rental rate and buy your own furniture. We recommend this for longer term stays just because in the long run it is much cheaper and there are more of the unfurnished rentals to go around and you will find a rental home much quicker and at a much nicer rental price!
4) So if you know ahead of time that you will be bringing your pet(s) we suggest you make room in your budget for buying your own furniture ($5k to 7K) for when you get here.
And here’s another thing to think about with furnished rentals. Many of the furnished rentals may have furniture that is not your style and you will end up not enjoying your new rental. We know personally that many of the homes and apartments that are furnished in the local price range have the bare minimum of furniture and it is 70’s and 80’s style furniture.
There is a lot of demand for even vacant houses with yards, and the local market is responding by raising rental rates. Our recommendation is: don't put yourself under time pressure to have to sign on any rental. This way, you can take your time and negotiate a more appropriate local rental rate rather than a foreigner rate.
The worst offender in that regard, as you might well have already guessed is: tah dah, craigslist. But if you're a reader of our DIY Cuenca Landing Guide, you already knew this.
For more, practical, how to, money and time saving advice and an inside look on how to live well on a budget in Ecuador see the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide today and if you want some assistance with finding a locally priced vacant long term rental see http://300dollarcuencarentals.blogspot.com/
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Renting New, 3/2, with a View in Cuenca Ecuador for $200 Dollars
We are revisiting some of our videos on YT and on this Discover Cuenca Ecuador Blog.
Gringa Rents Nice Apartment in Cuenca for $200!
In this interview (Part 1 of 2) we show
our readers that honest Ecuadorian Landlords will still rent to gringos at the
Ecuadorian rental rate…even in Cuenca! Our purpose
is to encourage younger families on smaller means and those on a small retirement
income by showing them that it is still possible to start a new life abroad and
live well in Cuenca Ecuador. However,
anyone can do it if they are so led. If interested in finding a local priced rental click here!
Yes, it’s
still possible to rent from Ecuadorians at Ecuadorian rental rates!!! But, as
we show in the video, you will not find these lower priced rentals going to an English-speaking
rental agency. In fact we know personally most of the rental agencies that speak English will raise the rental price when they smell a gringo coming.
You probably
will not get these rental rates by staying confined to the gringo cafés and
English-speaking hot-spots in Cuenca. You probably won’t find these local
rentals by demanding 24 hour security and river views, but you might get these amenities
as an added bonus, like Karina did, as seen in the video above.
How to Receive Local Rental Rates
You will get
these local priced rents in Cuenca Ecuador when you procure the resources and
use the techniques we offer in the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide, and when you go about town on the local level.
Decide
what it is you need and want. Do you
need to be next door to other expats and have 24 hour posted security guard,
within walking distance to Supermaxi?
Then your chances of receiving the local Cuenca rental rate of $200 to $350 for a house or apartment
are next to zero as other writers in the expat press candidly point out.
You Don’t Need to Know Spanish to Get
Local Priced Rental
Knowing a
little bit of Spanish before you arrive in Cuenca would be a plus, but you don’t
need to be fluent in Spanish. Just having the willingness to want to learn the
language so you can begin to make friends with the locals and truly enjoy your
new life in Ecuador, will go a long way.
As shown in
the video, our friend rents in a decent Ecuadorian neighborhood, at the
Ecuadorian rental rate and lives in a nice, new, big, (1,500 sq.ft) 3 bed/2
bath apartment. Sorry but she did not want us to take photos of the inside of her home, but it's new, has a view, and is nice.
The local
priced apartments and homes go fast, so if you see something you like, and it
meets your needs, then we advise to rent it. Be prepared to sign at least a 6-month
lease and pay a small deposit.
The Spanish
speaking resources we list in the DIY Guide have local priced rentals as well. But,
you may have to weed out the ads that are targeting gringos (pricing to
foreigners) and those that cater to the gringo demands such as river view +24 hour security guard, 5+
bedrooms, 4 baths very large places (near 3000 sq. feet) in some cases, and
furnished w/elevator. (See this video with real estate broker, Macrina Serano ). To
be sure, you will not find all that for the local price and you shouldn’t expect it.
As we discuss in the guide, however, you
should always negotiate, never just pay the asking price. I know everyone always says that, so we will
be issuing a free ebook soon on how to do just that. Buyers of our DIY Cuenca Landing Guide
will automatically receive this negotiation ebook for free. This is to thank you for your support of this
blog and to add value to your patronage and readership.
Cuenca Has Different
Priced Rents Depending on Your Needs and Wants
There’s different priced housing for
different types of needs and wants and that is what it all boils down to.
Remember now,
Karina has both the secure building, plus the views and her rent for a nice
three bedroom two bath apartment in Cuenca is $200; she met her needs and wants
through going local; she rents at the local rental rate; she has learned a bit
of Spanish in the nine weeks she has lived here and she has made some wonderful
Ecuadorian friendships, and that means a lot to her. See video for more.
Here is part two of this interview with Karina
If you want some assistance with finding a locally priced vacant long term
rental see http://300dollarcuencarentals.blogspot.com/
Gringa Rents Nice Apartment in Cuenca for $200!
In this interview (Part 1 of 2) we show
our readers that honest Ecuadorian Landlords will still rent to gringos at the
Ecuadorian rental rate…even in Cuenca! Our purpose
is to encourage younger families on smaller means and those on a small retirement
income by showing them that it is still possible to start a new life abroad and
live well in Cuenca Ecuador. However,
anyone can do it if they are so led. If interested in finding a local priced rental click here!
Yes, it’s
still possible to rent from Ecuadorians at Ecuadorian rental rates!!! But, as
we show in the video, you will not find these lower priced rentals going to an English-speaking
rental agency. In fact we know personally most of the rental agencies that speak English will raise the rental price when they smell a gringo coming.
You probably
will not get these rental rates by staying confined to the gringo cafés and
English-speaking hot-spots in Cuenca. You probably won’t find these local
rentals by demanding 24 hour security and river views, but you might get these amenities
as an added bonus, like Karina did, as seen in the video above.
How to Receive Local Rental Rates
You will get
these local priced rents in Cuenca Ecuador when you procure the resources and
use the techniques we offer in the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide, and when you go about town on the local level.
Decide
what it is you need and want. Do you
need to be next door to other expats and have 24 hour posted security guard,
within walking distance to Supermaxi?
Then your chances of receiving the local Cuenca rental rate of $200 to $350 for a house or apartment
are next to zero as other writers in the expat press candidly point out.
You Don’t Need to Know Spanish to Get
Local Priced Rental
Knowing a
little bit of Spanish before you arrive in Cuenca would be a plus, but you don’t
need to be fluent in Spanish. Just having the willingness to want to learn the
language so you can begin to make friends with the locals and truly enjoy your
new life in Ecuador, will go a long way.
As shown in
the video, our friend rents in a decent Ecuadorian neighborhood, at the
Ecuadorian rental rate and lives in a nice, new, big, (1,500 sq.ft) 3 bed/2
bath apartment. Sorry but she did not want us to take photos of the inside of her home, but it's new, has a view, and is nice.
The local
priced apartments and homes go fast, so if you see something you like, and it
meets your needs, then we advise to rent it. Be prepared to sign at least a 6-month
lease and pay a small deposit.
The Spanish
speaking resources we list in the DIY Guide have local priced rentals as well. But,
you may have to weed out the ads that are targeting gringos (pricing to
foreigners) and those that cater to the gringo demands such as river view +24 hour security guard, 5+
bedrooms, 4 baths very large places (near 3000 sq. feet) in some cases, and
furnished w/elevator. (See this video with real estate broker, Macrina Serano ). To
be sure, you will not find all that for the local price and you shouldn’t expect it.
As we discuss in the guide, however, you
should always negotiate, never just pay the asking price. I know everyone always says that, so we will
be issuing a free ebook soon on how to do just that. Buyers of our DIY Cuenca Landing Guide
will automatically receive this negotiation ebook for free. This is to thank you for your support of this
blog and to add value to your patronage and readership.
Cuenca Has Different
Priced Rents Depending on Your Needs and Wants
There’s different priced housing for
different types of needs and wants and that is what it all boils down to.
Remember now,
Karina has both the secure building, plus the views and her rent for a nice
three bedroom two bath apartment in Cuenca is $200; she met her needs and wants
through going local; she rents at the local rental rate; she has learned a bit
of Spanish in the nine weeks she has lived here and she has made some wonderful
Ecuadorian friendships, and that means a lot to her. See video for more.
Here is part two of this interview with Karina
If you want some assistance with finding a locally priced vacant long term
rental see http://300dollarcuencarentals.blogspot.com/
Sunday, October 28, 2012
$300 Cuenca Ecuador Rental Home Tour
This is a brand new (never lived in) tri-level home 3 bed for $300. There are some people that have said on forums that renting in this price range you will be living in a hovel...but we are exposing this untruth that has been floating around on some of the Cuenca forums. This home is in a gated community of about 7 other homes that are still in the construction phase. This home in the video has been rented.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Salinas Ocean Front Rental for $1K
When we were in Salinas we checked out some ocean front condo rentals to see what there was to offer for the fugal-minded budget. Even during off season the rents seemed to be a bit on the high side. Salinas, if you're on a budget, or if you want to live frugally is not a place you will want to live permanently. Salinas may be real nice on the Malecon but it is very touristy and the prices for rentals reflect that. Salinas Malecon area (beach) is geared to the tourist who wants to spend $20 on a lobster tail or $12 on a pasta dish and $500 a week on a furnished condo..
Once you walk away from the Malecon and beach area, Salinas is nothing special...there are very few good restaurants, markets, grocery stores, etc...oh, there is one small grocery store in Salinas a street back from the Malecon but there's not much there. you have to take a bus or taxi to La Libertad for the Paseo shopping Mall. Cuenca has much more to offer as far as good rentals, restaurants, fresh fruits and veggies, and shopping! We'll be talking more about Salinas in an upcoming video.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Furnished Rental in Salinas Ecuador: Rent by the Week or Month
This is one of the rentals that we had an opportunity to take photos and video of. It's off season right now (May) and so there are more rentals available. We still think this particular rental is asking too much. Remember: always negotiate the price of rental you are considering, whether you live in Salinas or Cuenca. Be a wise and diligent gringo.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Two Cuenca Budget Rental Recommendations
We get emails from our readers periodically letting us know about their choice of places to stay in Cuenca. Frank and I also run into good rental resources in our day to day adventures in Cuenca. We just sent out two new Cuenca budget rental recommendations from a reader, that seem to have fairly reasonable rates and are in convenient locations in Cuenca.
We have not checked these rentals personally but the prices seem to be pretty fair and so we wanted to send them to our readers who have already bought the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide. We value your readership and your support of this blog.
If you want to be close to the government offices and Supermaxi the first choice seems like a pretty good value. The first rental resource is next to the bus station and the Cuenca airport; about a five minute taxi ride to downtown Cuenca.
Remember: these are not our recommendations. We have never seem them or stayed there personally. The ones we personally recommend were already in the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide, along with many more rental resources at your finger tips.
We will continue to send folks who have bought the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide updates and new rental resources and recommendations as they come in that we deem worthy of attention. If you haven't alredy bought the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide then you're missing out! What are you waiting for? The guide also has tips and current immigration solutions for those wanting to extend their stay in Cuenca.
We have not checked these rentals personally but the prices seem to be pretty fair and so we wanted to send them to our readers who have already bought the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide. We value your readership and your support of this blog.
If you want to be close to the government offices and Supermaxi the first choice seems like a pretty good value. The first rental resource is next to the bus station and the Cuenca airport; about a five minute taxi ride to downtown Cuenca.
Remember: these are not our recommendations. We have never seem them or stayed there personally. The ones we personally recommend were already in the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide, along with many more rental resources at your finger tips.
We will continue to send folks who have bought the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide updates and new rental resources and recommendations as they come in that we deem worthy of attention. If you haven't alredy bought the DIY Cuenca Landing Guide then you're missing out! What are you waiting for? The guide also has tips and current immigration solutions for those wanting to extend their stay in Cuenca.
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