Digs.

From a Reader:

Hola Mike

Been much enjoying your blog and the spirit of this immigrant mutual aid idea. I've not been here 3 weeks but already have a good deal of hard earned bsas-quirk wisdom. One thing I have not figured out though - and I wonder if you can offer a tip - is how one gets a decent apartment in this city without getting crushed by the expat tax. Do you have any go-to websites for this sort of thing? My needs aren't complicated: Just need a single bedroom, furnished, with Internet, and would pay a little extra to pay by credit card or paypal (to avoid dealing in large sums of cash, which I learned the hard way on day one is dangerous business). Much obliged if you can suggest a website. Either way keep up the good work.

Dear Digs Seeker,

Good news and bad news:

The expat tax is coming down ...but large wads of cash are still the order of the day.

Buenos Aires rents really went up last year and the year before but the city has overbuilt and the extranjeros aren't renting and buying like they used to. I think that March will be a good time for apartment hunting. If you can hold out until chillier weather ...even better.

A two year lease is what every landlord wants to do here. You might be able to squeeze a 1 year out of somebody ...but it's hard to negotiate a good rate and get that at the same time. Furnished? Well, that's always been at a premium and from what I've seen those rents haven't gone down quite the way others have and probably won't follow unfurnished apartments in the exact same downward trend this year.

Rents are down a little in the expat bubble barrios ...but getting out to some traditional neighborhoods away from the N.E. of town will save you money and still keep you on a major public transit artery. I dearly love Almagro, por ejemplo ...but there are lots of others.

I've been lucky with paying multiple months in advance ...in cash, of course. I've even negotiated some pretty good discounts that way.

The really bad news is: landlords are the worst businessmen in the world. Doesn't matter what country you're talking about. They are just a step and a half above people that think they can make a fortune in the restaurant business. Therefore, they're hard to do business with.

You need to explain to them, and/or get somebody to explain to him, that the whole concept of la guarantía doesn't really apply to extranjeros.

La guarantía is the landlord's insurance policy against your "squatting" in his dpto for the two years that it's gonna take to evict you. You as an expat actually are more of a risk for running out on your lease than becoming a squatter. If you can get that through his thick landlord skull ...and pay 6 months in advance ...you might get him to overlook the guarantee and even drop the rent to porteño prices.

Paying 6 or more month's rent in one fell swoop may sound pretty extreme ...but if you're not getting any heavy interest on your savings account anyway ... it can actually be convenient for you as well as being a negotiating tool: you only have to pay your rent twice a year! (And remember, you gotta pay your rent every month anyway.) And since almost nobody mails in their rent check, like in the states, paying every month means arranging some face time to hand over the cash, which could conflict with some of your plans.

The best part of the relatively unheard-of "cash in advance" thing is that it surprises the hell out of your landlord (money talks...) and it might get him to start thinking outside the box.

For shorter terms than 2 years, we're gonna have to talk to somebody that's done it or is doing it. Trouble is... most of them, by definition, are gone by now! I still have lots of readers in the US, tho. Maybe some of them were short-termers and can chime in on the subject!

Yours in art and labor,
Mike