WanderingTrader

Finding an Apartment Overseas

I am a big proponent of living overseas rather than vacationing because you are able to really delve into a culture and actually save more money in the process.  Where else are you able to live places around the world for dollars a day…..  Don’t believe me? I have references!  See my living overseas section to take a look at how I was living in Buenos Aires for under $15 a day and living in Toronto for under $10 a day (post coming soon).

I’m breaking this section up into two different areas because you are either going to be in the city that are looking for an apartment or you are going to be researching places before you get there on the internet. Moving overseas is common for people who have made a living traveling around the world. Those who love beautiful exotic beaches and island life may move to Phuket or Bali however, busy city lovers may enjoy Rome or Bangkok.

When making the decision to move to a different country make sure to do your research and plan a trip to visit first before making a final decision. You can either decide to stay at a hotel, hostel or couchsurf while you are looking for a place to stay. Search online for a flight and book that hotel in Phuket, Bali, Rome or Bangkok. This sometimes can be easier and the most inexpensive way as you can show cash when you are ready to sign a lease and hustle the owner down from the rent that he wants.  Best way to do this is look for advertisements in supermarkets and café’s.

Ask locals as well where there are places for rent.  You can check out the apartments to make sure everything works and negotiate the rent that you want.

If you are searching on the internet for places to stay you obviously are going to google “apartments for rent (insert city here)”.  That’s good but a lot of times you will get management companies that charge extra for their services.  Here are other resources on the internet where you can find apartments for rent.

Craigslist –

I’ve had the best luck with craigslist where I have found very reasonable apartments and great landlords.  All the apartments that I have found are run by management companies but are owned by the actual owners themselves.  Since you are speaking with the actual owner you don’t pay any extra management fees and you keep all the benefits of getting things fixed right away by the management company.

Local Apartment & Room Rental Sites –

Just as there are specified websites for renting rooms and places in the United States there are local places in each country.  You can search the Google pages specified for that country to find these (example: Argentina Google is google.com.ar and France is google.fr).  Just search: Google (then country name) and you will find that Google site.

Tripadvisor –trip advisor logo

They have started to expand their forums to include apartments for rent but normally are much more expensive than the ones available on local sites and on craigslist.

SellMyTimeshareNOW.com – 

This is a great resource for those looking to rent a luxury apartment at a resort. You can usually get great rates if you rent through this site, because all of the properties are for rent by owner so you won’t have to pay the resort’s high fees. The site has a wide variety of timeshares and they are located all over the world, so it’s a good place to check out for those of you looking for affordable, comfortable accommodations.

Travel Forums –

Lonely Planet and Bootsnall are some of the most popular forums out there and you can ask people if they know of any apartments where they have stayed at or for good neighborhoods in the cities that you are looking to stay in.  Travelers are very friendly and willing to help other travelers out.

Twitter –

There is a massive congregation of travelers on twitter.  All you have to do is search twitter for the city that you are heading to and you will find travelers that were just there, living there, and even people that are renting apartments.  I’ve been able to get great information from the travelers I’ve met.  One of the great reasons you should use travel bloggers instead of travel sites to get travel advice.