- Hello from Mexico City.
As I mentioned in a video a few weeks ago,
I'm considering making this city my long-term home.
So today, it's time for some apartment hunting.
Before we dive in, I hope you will hit that subscribe button
because I post new travel vlogs and videos
about my life in Mexico every week.
So the first apartment I'm looking at
is located south of Condesa.
And this is actually a newly remodeled apartment.
So it literally smells like freshly completed construction.
I think that nobody has even lived here yet.
So let me give you a tour of the place.
So this is a one-bedroom apartment.
You walk into a small living room area
and this gorgeous kitchen.
I really love the shape of this
'cause you can kind of sit here at the bar
and kind of have your little cooking area.
Plenty of space.
The kitchen table.
Let's see here.
You've got the pantry,
some storage.
And this comes equipped with a medium size refrigerator,
microwave, stove top.
And then let's go here to the bedroom.
So it's a little on the small side, to be honest,
but I love how there's a desk here.
You've got plenty of storage space.
Here's your closet.
So this is perfect for one person, I would say.
And then you've got this nice bathroom.
Let's see if we can get some light in here.
I mean, it's very clean. Obviously just remodeled.
Sidebar, check out this sink.
It's so cute and tiny.
I've never seen a sink this adorable in my life.
And I love this.
You have a balcony out here.
So here's your view.
This is the only thing, if you were afraid of heights,
you can see right down to the bottom.
And there is some construction going on, it looks like,
so that could be bothersome.
So this apartment costs 12,000 pesos per month,
and I'm gonna have to double-check
if that includes the maintenance and everything else.
I think it does.
So it's a pretty good price.
I like the space, although it is, like I said,
a little on the small side.
But I actually think for just one person, for me,
this would be perfect.
Last thing I want to point out
is that I do think this has a perfect amount
of natural light coming in.
So I'd be able to have my plants.
I would say this is a definite consideration for me.
Right in my budget, good location,
and pretty much the perfect space,
the perfect size space for me.
The only major downside right off the bat is, of course,
that construction.
I did ask if they knew how long it was gonna take
for them to tear down that entire building.
They estimated about a month.
However, that's not the end of it,
because obviously, they're tearing it down
to most likely build something in its place.
So that could mean ongoing construction
for the entirey of a one-year rental.
And speaking of a one-year rental, that is gonna be the case
with almost all the apartments that I'm looking at.
Most landlords require a one-year lease.
So even though I would probably like to start out
with a six month type of deal to make sure Mexico City
truly is going to be a good fit for me,
that might not be in the cards.
I am now in the second apartment that I'm looking at today.
This one is located in Narvarte Oriente,
which is a smaller subset of the Narvarte neighborhood,
as you could possibly imagine.
This is a one-bedroom and one-bathroom place.
As you can see right now, I'm standing in the bedroom.
It has a king size bed.
And I think this is really cool.
This area here is like, kind of like having a balcony,
but it's on the inside.
Because above me,
you can see that there's like, natural light here.
This looks out to the street,
got a little place to hang out,
a TV in here, a dresser,
two dressers, actually.
I don't particularly think that those are necessary
because this is the closet.
Biggest closet ever.
And, I mean, up top,
you even have more storage space.
I think everything that I own
could fit in half of this closet.
So there's plenty of space.
Mirrors on there too.
Oh, I think this is so interesting.
I'm sure this exists elsewhere,
but I'd never seen this until coming to Mexico City,
where it's like, you put the hanger
on each of these individual things, and it rolls.
I don't know whether I like it or don't like it,
but it is what it is.
Okay, so we're gonna walk out of the bedroom here,
and here's the kitchen.
I do like the shapes of these kitchens.
It's kind of like you have a nice space to work with.
Very statement red cabinetry.
It has a full size refrigerator,
which I don't know why that's so rare.
You have your living room, dining room area,
which is all kind of together.
And again, you have a similar thing
with natural light coming in.
I really like that.
And then a nice big window that looks out to the street.
So here's another view.
It does look like there's plenty
of storage space in the kitchen, which is really nice.
And then the apartment's kind of laid out funky,
in my opinion.
But here from the kitchen, you have the bathroom,
which has your shower.
And another window here for some natural light.
And I think it's just kind of funky
because it's off of the kitchen,
and then the bedroom is over here.
So that's not the most typical layout.
I would actually expect there to be a bathroom
off of this bedroom,
but I like the space.
And in the building, she said there's only
one other apartment for rent,
and then she lives downstairs.
So the rent for this is going to be 16,000 pesos,
which is a little bit higher than the last one.
Although I do think you're getting
more bang for your buck here.
And it includes everything.
Internet, water, gas, Netflix,
electricity, like, everything.
And I asked her, "Is there anything not included?"
And she said, "No."
And you know, the great thing is, with this one,
I don't think there's anything that I don't like in here,
or any like, red flags,
except for maybe the red kitchen.
Not my favorite.
I would probably pick a different accent color.
But other than that,
it seems like a really nice space
for a very reasonable price.
And it's also on such a quiet street.
It doesn't seem like any traffic comes down this street
except for who lives here.
There's no other reason to drive through.
It's not a main connecting street.
So I really like that.
I am now in my third apartment of the day.
This one is in Narvarte Poniente,
which is the neighbor to the west
of Narvarte Oriente, where I just was.
I think it's maybe like a 10 minute or less drive.
This one is, I think, the oldest building,
or like, the oldest of all of them.
And it's very unique.
I'll show you why.
So you come in the front door here,
and you have the kitchen,
which is partitioned off from the rest of the apartment.
It's got decent counter space, microwave, stove top,
toaster oven, a full size refrigerator, which is nice,
and seems to have lots of storage space.
And you've got a window out here.
And then you come around the corner,
we've got the dining area with,
look at this chandelier, I love it,
lots of natural light coming in.
And here's a unique feature
and one reason why I think this is one of the older places.
This seems to be the original wooden floors.
They're a bit noisy, as you can hear,
but I kind of like that.
It gives it charm.
I'm not sure if this is a working fireplace,
but here's the living space.
Another gorgeous chandelier.
I really like how this is furnished, actually.
Actually, given that this is painted,
I'm gonna say that this is a decorative fireplace now.
Anyway, so this is also a one-bedroom.
It's a very spacious bedroom, actually,
with what looks like a queen size bed
and so much closet space.
And you have even more space for storage here.
This window looks out to kind of a common middle area,
which is,
or I shouldn't say a common, just a cutout of the building,
which seems to be common in Mexico City
so you have light on other sides of the house.
You've got the bathroom here.
Nothing too awfully special,
but you've got your shower, sink, toilet,
storage space, nice.
And here is like, the entertainment room,
the living room sort of.
You've got your workspace here,
and entertainment stand with, again, lots of space.
And it's gonna get pretty loud out here,
but it does have a balcony.
But this is a very busy road, so it's pretty noisy.
Although I don't really hear all this noisiness inside.
So I would have lots of space out here to put plants,
maybe a chair so I can hang out.
Although it's not the most peaceful and quiet place.
So this one-bedroom, or I don't know if you could even,
maybe it's two bedrooms.
There's one bed,
but then you've got this extra living space.
This is going to be 14,500 pesos a month,
and that includes internet and,
shoot, I forget.
I just wanted to double-check.
It includes internet and water.
So then everything else, electricity and other things,
gas would be apart from that.
But I do like the space.
It is though, quite a busy area next to the street,
so I'm not sure.
I'm not sure. I'd have to give this one some thought.
I do love with these older buildings though,
they do have so much more character.
I mean, not everything's gonna work perfectly,
and you've got some squeaky floors and whatnot,
I like it. I really like that.
Sometimes the newly remodeled is nice,
but at the same time,
you don't have the history that these apartments do.
So although I do really like the apartment,
I do think the the noisiness of this major street,
what is this street called again?
Xola?
Xola. So this has a lot of buses going down it,
lots of traffic.
So I think that might be a deal breaker.
And with this landlord, you said he wanted
a 45% insurance policy, basically,
and a cosigner, essentially.
So that also makes it a little bit more tricky
to rent this one.
So of the three neighborhoods that I visited so far,
I'd say the first two are pretty calm
and much more residential.
This one's probably the most like, chaotic of the three.
However, that does mean you have more restaurants to go to,
shops, things to see and do.
So there's kind of those trade offs to consider.
And by the way, who was I just talking to?
This is Melanie,
a real estate agent who has a real estate company,
who's helping me look at all these apartments.
You've done all the work of reaching out to these landlords
and sending me photos,
and basically, from the specifications that I told her,
the things that I'm looking for and my budget,
you found all these great options.
- And since you don't have like, the knowledge in Spanish,
and also, all the things that are needed
for this process, then I'm lending a hand in that.
- So thank you so much,
because this has definitely been so much breezier,
and especially, I appreciate,
she's been driving me around today.
- That too.
- So it's been amazing.
I'll go ahead and put her contact information
down in the description
if you need some type of services like this as well.
Well, we have a break in showings
because one of the apartments canceled.
They're like, in contract, or it's pending,
or something happened.
So I figured I'd give you a tour of my Airbnb
to show you a little comparison
of what the price costs on platform
versus the prices that I'm getting of these other ones.
Here is my Airbnb in the neighborhood
of Colonia del Valle Norte.
If I were to pay for a month here,
it would be approximately $800 before Airbnb's fees.
So we've got a little desk here, a nice seating area.
I would consider this a kitchenette,
but it does look pretty functional.
There's decent counter space.
Tiny little fridge,
sink out here, which is part of the kitchen,
got tons of natural light.
To me, this looks almost like it could be
a little indoor terrace patio kind of area.
Here's another view of the living room,
which also has a TV, tons of places to sit.
And it's a two-bedroom place.
So we'll go into one bedroom here.
Got a little closet here.
This is a little sketchy to me.
If you have the window open at night for air circulation,
anybody can kind of just like, reach their hand in here.
But it is what it is.
And then coming over here, I'll go into the second bedroom.
It's kind like a little den,
'cause you go down a couple of stairs.
So you have a nice big bed.
And then here,
this looks out to kind of a common courtyard hallway
to these other apartments.
Interesting little short closet here.
I've never seen anything like that.
And last but not least, is the bathroom.
Looks like a pretty nice one, actually,
except for this tiny sink where you could never fit
any of your stuff.
But here they have storage space for you.
Also, this goes out to the street.
Shower here.
Pretty normal, very clean.
Also, one last thing,
if you want your storage, it's up here.
I don't why I think that's funny.
But yeah, I think I'm gonna enjoy my stay here.
Guess who's back.
Back again.
Erika's back.
Tell a friend.
So Erika traveled here from Veracruz,
and we were gonna show you this last apartment,
but apparently they had issue with recording in there
or taking pictures or anything,
so I'm just gonna tell you about it.
It's in the neighborhood called Cuauhtémoc.
It costs 17,000 pesos for it to be furnished,
or 15,000 pesos if it was unfurnished.
Didn't super love it,
'cause it has like a dorm sized fridge.
The furniture situation was pretty awkward.
- Pretty cramped.
- And for 17,000 pesos, like, I get it,
this area is a little bit nicer and pricier, but like.
- It's definitely not.
It does not have that wow factor.
You walk in and it's just everything's there.
- Yeah, it's super like.
- Does not flow.
_ Clunkily furnished.
I think I'll have a lot to think about
with all these different options that I looked at today.
Thank you so much for joining me
on my apartment hunting expeditions.
On the screen here is a video I made
explaining why I'm actually interested
in staying in Mexico City in the first place.
So click on that if you want to keep watching.
Please subscribe to my channel.
And one more thing,
you want to do it, you want to do it?
- Wait, with my water bottle.
(bell chiming)
- GONG that bell so you get notified
the next time I release a new video.
And I'll see you next week.