House Rentals, Apartment Rentals Overseas

March 23, 2010
Panama City, Panama

PLUS:

• "Weren't Seven People Killed In Belize Last Week?"...

----------

Fully Detailed Guides To The Five Cheapest Retirement Havens On Earth...Yours Free

Amidst vistas of nearly indescribable beauty, you can pay US$200 a month for rent, spend only 1% of the usual cost of health care, and enjoy a nice dinner out for US$1.50.

The world doesn't get any cheaper. And, in many ways, it doesn't get any better.

We have prepared complete "Country Retirement Reports" on the world's five most affordable overseas retirement havens...places that are not only super cheap, but also beautiful, safe, welcoming, and, in some cases, boasting near-perfect climes, superior foreign retiree benefits, established expatriate communities, tax advantages, and more.

We'd like to send you all five of these fully detailed Country Retirement Reports (a US$69.75 value) with our compliments when you take us up on this special limited-time invitation.

Go Here Now To Learn More

----------

Dear Live and Invest Overseas Reader,

The most important thing to understand about finding rental accommodation (short or long term) in a foreign country is that you can't do it long distance. Not if you want to get a good deal and avoid surprises.

For, to get a good deal, you must shop beyond the Internet market, and, to do that, you must have feet on the ground, either yours or those of a reliable local contact you trust.

You can begin your search long distance, googling "For Rent" opportunities in the place where you'd like to spend time. You'll find those houses and apartments listed either by other gringos (that is, fellow non-locals) or by locals with the wherewithal to advertise their rentals on the Net. In other words, this route leads to the high-ticket and priced-for-the-gringo-market properties.

Google "Se Aquila" (in a Spanish-speaking market) or "A Louer" (in a French one), and you improve your chances of penetrating the market to a more local level. But the real deals never make it anywhere a search engine could find them. They're found by scanning grocery store bulletin boards, by asking your lunch waitress or taxi driver for help, by scouring the local-language newspaper classifieds, or courtesy of your friend's son's teacher's cousin, who happens to be moving out of his apartment and would be willing to transfer the lease to you.

Finding these kinds of leads is tough. Following through to vet them is an even greater challenge, especially if you don't speak the local language.

This is why you'll hear such disparate accounts of what it costs to rent a home in Any Foreign Market. The difference between the cost of a rental sourced on an English-language agent's website can be 10 times as much as the cost of a rental sourced via a local friend's cousin.

You don't have to care about that mark-up, and maybe you don't. No one wants to be taken advantage of, but understand, too, that there's nothing wrong with opting to spend a little more to make the experience a little less hassled. How much less hassled depends on how much more you're comfortable paying.

In this context (that is, when shopping for a place to live in a new country, as opposed to an investment buy), I strongly recommend that you rent first.

Probably you understand that purchasing real estate overseas, especially in an emerging or unregulated market, is nothing like purchasing real estate back home in, say, the United States. It may not have occurred to you, though, that the same goes for renting overseas. Just as when buying a piece of property in a foreign market you can't take anything for granted, neither can you when renting one either.

Some places, "unfurnished" means no stove in the kitchen and no lighting fixtures anywhere. Some markets, you, as the renter, are responsible even for structural repairs (cracks in the façade, for example, or a leaky roof). And it's always possible that the guy offering to rent you a house doesn't in fact own that house. Maybe he's subletting to you (which is illegal in some countries) or maybe it's his friend's house and he just happens to have a key.

Don't sign any rental agreement until your attorney reviews it first (especially if it's written in a language you don't read!). And don't be surprised, if you're renting on a very local level, if you're not asked to sign anything at all. If the cousin of a friend introduces you to his neighbor whose house you decide to rent, the deal may be struck with a handshake.

Here are other key How To Rent Overseas pointers:

1. Understand what's included in your monthly rent. Make sure the lease establishes clearly what's included in your rent and what's not--building or homeowner's association fees, water expense, utilities, phone, Internet, etc.

2. Understand how, where, and to whom you pay which bills each month. Maybe you deposit the rent directly into the owner's bank account. Maybe you pay a rental manager. Maybe you have to hand-deliver the check to your landlord. In Europe, rent is often paid by direct debit from your local bank account, which means you need a local bank account. And, often, building and HOA fees are paid to a different person or organization and by a separate check than the rent.
 
3. Ask what documentation you'll have to produce to be able to rent. In France, you need to satisfy the landlord that you can afford to become his tenant, and, because it's France, you do this by creating a thick dossier of financial documents, bank statements, pay stubs, reference letters, bank letters, guarantor letters, etc. It's a serious effort that you can't undertake lightly.

4. Understand when the rental period begins. The start date of your rental (that is, the date from which you're paying rent) doesn't always coincide with the date when you take up occupancy. Here in Panama City, for example, we paid rent for two weeks in advance of our moving in. The market was so competitive at the time that we had to agree to pay half a month's rent in advance of the first of the month we moved in.

Armed with these fundamentals, you're ready to go shopping.
To start, tomorrow, Panama...

Kathleen Peddicord

Editor's Note: Kathleen Peddicord's new book, How To Retire Overseas, features more details on renting in foreign markets. The book is available in U.S. bookstores now. Or you can buy your copy online here.

----------

Run Away To A Beautiful English-speaking Land On The Caribbean...And Live Tax-free!

Belize is one of my favorite countries in the world, one of the places I most regularly day-dream about returning to explore further. From the white-sand beaches of Ambergris Caye in the Caribbean to the long mainland coast (offshore which lies the second-longest barrier reef in the world) and the hilly rain forest interior, Belize serves up natural beauty in abundance. This country's islands, beaches, Mayan ruins, mountains, rivers, caves, and waterfalls make for some of the best adventure travel (that is, snorkeling, diving, boating, fishing, hiking, river-rafting, mountain climbing, and spelunking) on earth.

And that's only the start of the reasons why you should be taking a close look right now at this little English-speaking country. Belize is also one of the top offshore, asset-protection, tax, and banking havens in the world today.

On top of this, Belize offers a user-friendly and incentive-laden foreign residency program that allows for what friends in the country refer to as "virtual residency." You can take advantage of the advantages of permanent Belize residency even if you're physically present in the country as little
as two weeks per year.

Plus, Belize is affordable, welcoming, safe, and home to an interesting, eclectic, engaging, and friendly population that includes a well-established expatriate community of like-minded adventurer-retirees who would love to have you join them.

The advantages, appeals, and attractions of Belize are many.

But is it a place you want to spend your time or your money?

---------- "Kathleen, got your book today at Borders, and it is great!"

-- Rich G., United States "Kathleen, when I was in Belize a month ago, I was told by the cruise director that it isn't a safe place. When I talked with a shop owner, she told me that seven people had been killed in the past week."

-- Art R. United States

Friend in the country Dennis Johnson, of the Belize Crime Control Council, replies:

"Yes, Belize has a crime problem, but it is centralized in the southside of Belize City. Unfortunately, as Belize has grown and matured since Independence, the southside of Belize City has been left behind economically. This has led to a rise of crime in this district. "Elsewhere in the country and even elsewhere in Belize City, crime is extraordinarily low. Beyond this southside zone, in fact, Belize is one of the safest places on earth. There is virtually no crime, petty or serious.

"That said, the Belize government is fully aware of the problem in particular neighborhoods of Belize City. It sees this as one of the most important problems the country must address at this point and has fully committed itself to alleviating both the poverty and the crime in this district. Infrastructural development in this part of Belize City has been greatly increased over the last year, and police and other community outreach programs are beginning to yield positive results. Job training and education for the people in this part of the city are high priorities.

"To answer the reader's question specifically, rest assured that, no, seven people were not killed in Belize City 'last week' or in any other week. This is a small country with a small population. Seven people killed in one city in one week would be an extraordinary statistic, and, no, it is not correct. There is a lot of hysteria involving crime in Belize City. The reality is not nearly as horrifying as the urban legends surrounding it.

"As for a cruise director telling cruise ship passengers how dangerous Belize is, I don't see what the motivation could be. The cruise ship industry loves Belize and is always looking for new tour opportunities for cruise-goers and encouraging Belize to improve and expand our infrastructure so tourists can be transported to more places.

"Belize in general is a very safe place to live, work, and visit. And with all the attention from both society and all sectors of government being brought to bear to address the problems that do exist, I believe real improvement is not far off."