You’re moving to a new country. You’ll need a place to live.
I say rent one. At least at first but maybe forever.
Maybe your chosen haven won’t turn out to be all you hoped it would be. Or maybe you’ll find that the country suits you fine but the neighborhood where you’ve settled doesn’t.
I’ve yet to meet an expat who regrets having made the move overseas, but I know many who weren’t happy with their initial location choices.
That’s no problem—as long as you haven’t purchased your home.
In Ireland more than 25 years ago and when we moved to Panama 11 years later, we rented first. In both cases we were glad we did.
We arrived in Ireland thinking we wanted to base ourselves in Waterford City center. We rented a small house on the river within walking distance of our daughter’s school. It was ideal on paper. But Waterford City life didn’t suit us.
Once we saw it up close, we realized that Irish country living was more our speed. We wanted pastural views. I yearned for sheep and cows all around in fields punctuated by low stone walls.
We shopped for and found an old Georgian farmhouse in County Waterford, 30 minutes from the city. Lahardan House was our comfortable and cozy Irish country home for more than 6 years.
When we repositioned to Panama, I wanted to settle in Casco Viejo. I’d long been infatuated by Panama City’s old town. We couldn’t find a suitable rental, though, so we took up residence in a convenient location in the central part of the city near the water but found quickly, again, that this lifestyle wasn’t for us. The new-built character-less high-rise tower didn’t feel like home.
So, a year later, when the lease was up, we repositioned to Casco Viejo.
Turned out, that Spanish- and French-colonial neighborhood was more charming in my imagination than in real life. Traffic, tourists, and lack of parking made day-to-day living painful. We moved out before the end of our lease.
Next stop a house in Marbella.
We’d already tried high-rise living and thought a house would give us more privacy. We found life in Marbella as challenging as it’d been in Casco. Panama City at ground level everywhere is dirty and loud.
A year later, we were moving again, this time back into an apartment. At last, though, we’d found a building we liked in an ideal location. Lief, Jackson, and I called Miramar our home for five happy years.
We thought about asking the owners of our apartment if they were interested in selling but held off and were glad we did. When Jackson headed off to college, the oversized three-bedroom apartment was more than we needed.
Thanks to our extended goldilocks experience across this city, we realized that we already owned the place that suited us best. We took our one-bedroom waterfront rental that we’d bought a decade earlier off the market and moved into it ourselves.
It took us a while to find our way to them, but we’ve enjoyed those Avenida Balboa digs ever since. They’re the perfect base for us now as we come and go from the Hub of the Americas.
If you’re facing this challenge for the first time, you might feel stuck. How do you begin searching for a rental in a foreign country?
The best way to source a rental anywhere in the world is by word-of-mouth. You can search on the Internet, but the rentals you find this way are typically the most expensive, certainly if you search English-language sites in a non-English-speaking market.
You can increase your chances of getting a better deal by referencing sites in the local language. Still, going this route, you’re going to find only those properties for rent by locals with the wherewithal to advertise online.
To access the local (that is, the most affordable) market wherever you’re moving, you need boots on the ground—yours or those of someone you trust.
You can begin the process before arriving in your new home, but finding the right rental for you in the right location at a good price can be difficult from afar.
The problem is you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.
A few years ago, a reader in Panama City to shop for an apartment to rent stopped by our office to update us on her search.
“Well, the person who put together the Internet ad for the apartment I just viewed should win some kind of a prize,” she exclaimed.
“His photos made the place look big, bright, and beautiful. In fact, it was small, dark, and dingy. Plus, the photos with the ad showed a swimming pool. So I asked the agent showing us the apartment if we could see the pool.
“‘Oh, there’s no pool in this building,’ she replied.
“‘But the ad online shows a swimming pool,’ I said.
“‘That pool isn’t here in the building. It’s nearby, at the Marriott Hotel down the street…’”
It may sound like a non-strategy, but the best approach can be to make a reservation at a hotel or Airbnb in the area where you think you’d like to live.
Plan to stay four or five weeks. It may not take you this long to find a place to live more permanently, but don’t be discouraged if it does.
We were guests of the Granville Hotel in Waterford for three months before we finally found the rental cottage that became our first home in that city. Fortunately, the manager was open to negotiating a long-term rate.
Easing into a place this way gives you a chance to get the lay of the land and to take your time considering your options.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
