Welcome back Tangerineys!
Today we're going to be telling you something that is so popularly asked on our channel
lately and that is how much we're paying for rent, what our cost of living is and we're
telling you this today because we are finally settled in Puerto Morelos.
And in addition to that, how we found our rental, that's a very common question.
People often say something like "oh, you just have to know a guy who has an uncle who rents
out his apartment" but like, how do you find said uncle or said guy?
And by the end of this video, we're going to let you know what we found, the various
options we found, how much they were and what we ended up going with.
I am now in the jungle. [Laughter].
So when we first came to Puerto Morelos we booked a week. That's what we usually like
to do in any new city just to get our bearings, to see do we like it, do we like the food,
the people, what do we think of it, and then we go from there.
I think it was like day two where we were like "yeah, we'd live here", then after we
decided we wanted to spend more time in Puerto Morelos, we joined some Facebook groups, ones
that were specifically catered towards rentals in Puerto Morelos, and in addition to Facebook
groups, we also drove around looking for - for rent signs, they usually say, "Se Renta".
Best ways to find that uncle owns an apartment one, go on Facebook and literally just type
in "Rentas De" or like the city name and rentals or something like that.
Facebook usually figures out what you're looking for and shows you the best groups or the ones
with the most members that are active and whatnot.
And we also went to a real estate office in person.
Real estate offices were a pretty good resource for us although we didn't end up booking through
them.
Yeah and that's not something I've ever done in the US, I mean in the US I was always looking
on like Craigslist or just Googling apartment complexes, maybe talking to friends.
And so I thought there was a cost, like if you went into a real estate office, I thought
you'd have to pay to have them help you find a place but that was not the case.
So speaking of talking to friends, that's another way.
Talking to people who live here and saying, "yeah, we're looking for a place" and then
normally people are like "oh yeah, I'll keep an eye out for you".
That's how we found the cheapest option while as we were looking.
Waz as we were looking.
Waz we were looking [Laughter].
Since moving in here, one of the things we've had to figure out how to do - what to do or
how to do it is filling up these things and buying new ones, so we're going to do that now.
At where? OXXO. OXXO.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Thank you!
There's no Bonafont? Yes (there is). Outside?
65 pesos. So, we got two 5-gallon jugs of water and it was 65 pesos for both of them
total.
If you don't have a jug, well then you'll have to put a deposit down on the jug and
that was 70 pesos for one jug when we did that.
As far as I know too it's a non-refundable deposit.
Oh okay.
So you're just - you're buying it.
Yeah, but you never have to pay that again as long as you don't break it.
But you've been following us on our Facebook page, you will have seen the few videos that
we've uploaded of attempts to put these garrafones in the water dispenser, all unsuccessful and
we got some really great tips from you guys on how to do this without spilling all of
it and flooding the kitchen essentially.
[Sarcastic Evil Laughter].
Oh my gosh!
Heaven help us all [Laughter].
Someone told us to cut a hole in this, cross like that.
This little guy right here is going to go into this hole hopefully then...
We hope - hopefully [Laughter].
We hope this works and I don't dump a gallon of water on the floor like I did in those others.
Okay.
Oh gosh! every time this happens, it sounds like it's cracking and breaking but I don't
see any water anywhere.
Oh, there we go!
We have bubbles!
Laska, victory dance!
Victory stretch, okay.
So to kick off our search, we posted what we were looking for in the Facebook groups
that we joined once we were approved in those and that didn't actually end up turning out
to be very fruitful for us but what did was reaching out to people who had already posted
their own and then connecting with them and then just going to see those properties.
So, ultimately we saw in person like five I believe.
Yeah something like a half a dozen and some of those people we reached out to on Facebook
ended up being real estate agents, so in addition going into a real estate office, we worked
with agents that way.
Who also ended up having more properties that we viewed - that we didn't see on the Facebook
groups ourselves.
Yeah, so that - those proved to be a lot of very desirable options that we were considering.
One thing I don't think we've mentioned yet about Puerto Morelos is that there's two sides
basically; the beach side or the port side and then divided with mangroves, you have
the Colonia side where we're currently at and where we're staying.
We all but ruled out the beach side just because it's high season right now and most of those
are vacation rentals priced to be pretty expensive per night and most people are not looking
to rent them out long term because they can make more money.
Yeah, not in high season.
Yeah.
So, longer term rental over on the beach side versus the Colonia side, you're looking at
two or three times more expensive for the same size and kind of property.
One of the other benefits of starting off booking and Airbnb is that a lot of times
the Airbnb hosts have multiple properties.
So, we ended up asking our host, letting them know that we wanted to stay longer and we're
looking for a longer term rental and it turns out she has a whole bunch of properties in
Puerto Morelos.
Like we mentioned earlier, we initially booked a week at our Airbnb but we ended up staying
there a couple weeks or maybe even three weeks as we looked for other longer term rentals.
I think this is really important too because without that buffer of those weeks, I think
we would have felt pressured into taking a rental initially that wasn't a good fit, so
having that extra time, even though we might be paying a little bit more nightly as opposed
to those longer-term rentals, that's the way that we found to - find that perfect fit and
not have regret later.
Can you guys please bear with us with this wind today.
Something about Puerto Morelos, it is really windy all the time and we do not have our
external microphones yet, we've told you this a million times, we wanted to get them, we're
going to get them but then we decided we're going back to the US where it'd be much cheaper,
we're not having to pay the import taxes for electronics.
And why are we going back to the US?
Where are we going in the U.S.?
Would you like to share the news?
Yes we - It's not really news but [Laughter] would you like to share?
We are going to Las Vegas, it's one of our favorite guilty pleasure trips and we're super
excited for it, to celebrate - Vegas!
[Laughter].
We're celebrating both of our birthdays and our three-year anniversary while we're there.
Ho ho yeah!
And shenanigans, you best believe [Laughter].
So, back to rentals though, in all of our searching and talking with people, some people
spoke English, some people did not and in these types of situations, were really glad
we're learning with Rocket Languages.
I know we bring this up all the time but it really is the most all-inclusive language
learning software and that's why we promote it, that's why we like it, that's why we're
using it because it helps us build full sentences instead of just random vocabulary words that
can't really be put into practice.
And as it turns out, Rocket Languages is having a sale right now, so if you're considering
getting it so that you can learn Spanish, we'll put that link down below in the description,
you can even start out with a free trial and go from there.
I forgot to mention, it's only the first thousand people that can get the discount they're running
right now, so if you're thinking about it, Do It.
So, what did we end up finding in our search?
Well, on the ocean side, there was one place that was a one-bedroom and it was 15,000 pesos
a month. So that's getting on the high side of what we're looking for.
So, over on the Colonia side, for that same 15,000 pesos, we found like a four-bedroom
three-bath place with all utilities, electric, Internet, water, gas, everything included.
That was in a gated community and in the same gated community we found a three-bedroom place
that was also furnished and that was 10,800 and there was another two-bedroom place in
the same gated community once again and that was 13,700, furnished with a really nice top-of-the-line
furniture - everything brand-new - totally brand-new. Granite countertops, everything
that could we could ever want.
The cheapest we found in our search was 3,800 pesos a month.
We didn't actually see that one though, so - So, yeah - Can't totally say that that one
is for sure legit.
Mm-hmm.
There are some very cheap places but like we mentioned, they might not have everything
you're looking for like hot water and air conditioning.
Something interesting I think about Puerto Morelos and actually a lot of cities in Mexico
is that the majority of rentals that you'll find are furnished, so at least in Phoenix,
I don't think that's very common to find places that are furnished, it's rare and there's
certainly not places with nice furniture.
Like in college, we both stayed at Villas on Apache and that furniture was mmm, bad!
Really bad.
And furnished places in the US are way more expensive.
In addition to those in that gated community, we also found some large studios and large
one bedrooms that were in the six to seven thousand peso a month range, so we had a lot
to choose from.
There were quite a few great options in our budget and keep in mind, this is peak season.
This is - this is expensive time of the year.
Often people are asking us how easy it is or difficult to find a rental that allows
pets especially since we're traveling with a husky and in this case we found tons and
tons of places in Puerto Morelos that were pet friendly and even the ones that weren't
actually were okay with Laska when we asked and as long as we are paying an extra deposit.
In most cases it was about two months rent put down upfront.
Right now we're at one of our favorite places on the Colonia side, we showed you this in
a previous video, it's called Chilpayas, they have amazing seafood here.
And the next tip we learned when we were looking for a rental was about places and the time
that you're renting.
This might seem obvious but the longer you rent, the cheaper it's going to be per month.
So, this is a huge huge difference whether you're looking at renting a week or renting
a month or a few months and typically if you're going through a real estate office, they're
looking for a minimum of six months.
So, if you're at the course of our travels, we've kind of figured out that at around the
four month mark is where we start getting the itch to go somewhere else, so when we
were looking for these places, we were sort of hoping to get three or four months booked
and then go from there.
So, here in Puerto Morelos, we didn't want to lock ourselves into a six month contract
even though that's what most people renting prefer but what we found was that renting
for four months was almost the same price as renting for six months.
As in you could stay for four months and pay almost the same price as staying two months
longer, does that make sense?
The monthly price for four month rental was way more than the monthly rent for six months.
So the lesson is; the longer you can rent, the more money you will save...
most likely.
So, in Puerto Morelos, the Internet can vary a lot as we found out and this is pretty true
of most cities like depending on the neighborhood and whatnot but one way that we figured out
how to get around this or to find places with the best internet is bringing a laptop with
us and doing a speed test at all of the rentals that we checked out in person.
We did find that it was pretty good in some parts and horrible in others.
So, if you rely on internet like we do, then we recommend doing the same thing.
Okay, we're gonna try to multitask here and tell you the next tip [Laughter].
People coming from the US or Canada to Mexico often are pretty put off by how many random
loud noises there are at any random time of the day and night.
Like Justin Bieber in Spanish playing at 5 a.m., real example.
This is a real culture difference that you're probably just gonna have to get used to.
There are some ways you can avoid it here though, place - Here in Puerto Morelos.
Yeah, here in Puerto Morelos.
Getting a place in a gated community or I think the beach side is going to be quieter
at night but I can't confirm that, I know there's just a lot less action going on over
there.
Less families - during the day - I mean this is where the majority of the population in Puerto Morelos lives,
in the Colonia side and we're going to tell you all the details about this lovely place
but after insanity, because as it turns out, this is really hard to do while talking.
Yes [Laughter].
Please excuse our sweatiness, that was [Laska howling]... woooo.
Thank you Laska.
Yeah, come here!
Okay, sit.
Good girl!
Good girl.
You're hot. It's like a woolly rug.
And one last thing, if I can ask you a favor, if you stuck around to this point, thank you
so much.
Please don't post how much we're paying for rent in the comment since obviously we left
this till the end for a reason, so please and thank you, we worked very hard on this
video to give you lots of good information.
So, last but certainly not least, our place, the one that we picked.
What are some details about...
Please stop licking my armpit [Laughter].
We ended up going with a studio apartment, it's a very large... okay [Laughter].
It's a very large studio apartment although it was still a good deal, the three bedroom
and four-bedroom places, we honestly just like... what would we possibly do with that
much space?
We really don't need that much space, so we decided to go with a smaller one, she offered
us no need to put a deposit if we paid three months in advance, so that's what we did.
Seven thousand (pesos) a month.
And so that includes electricity, water and it included the first amount of gas, whatever
gas was left in the tank and we recently had to get that filled up again, which we filled out with...
That was fun - five hundred pesos to fill it up, so not too terrible.
I'm not actually sure how long it's going to last but to get this gas, our landlord
gave us the number and we tried texting it, it didn't work...
Yeah, then I called and I got an automated system, guys this is in Spanish, like, speaking
on the phone in another language is hard enough, then when it's an automated system you can't
ask them to repeat anything, they say it however fast they say it and we were unsuccessful.
We ended up asking our neighbor to help us [Laughter].
Who I'm pretty sure he called and did it in like two seconds, so it's probably not that difficult
if you can understand their automated system and they just came out and filled it...
Laska, stop [Laughter].
They came and filled it, it was no big deal but yes, so that's what we're paying for this
place.
We'll be here for... now, after this it'll be like - A little over two months probably...
Two months or so.
We only wanted to do three months at first because there's no air conditioning in here which
Hence the sweatiness after working out but after the three months, she's going to install
an air conditioning at which point we will be paying utilities in addition to the rent cost.
Hopefully we answered all the questions you might have had, if not, drop us a comment
down below, if you think someone else would benefit from this information, share this
video with a friend on WhatsApp and email or on social media.
Also, if you haven't already subscribe to our channel, if you want to see more videos
we're making about Mexico but we're just traveling the world, coming up the Vegas, woo woo [Laughter].
Oh yes, and one more thing [Bell Ringing] GONG THAT BELL so you get notified the next
time we put out a new video.
Okay bye bye [Laughter].
[Music]