Lake Chapala Ajijic Mexico Information

How To Rent A House

The Guadalajara Reporter which comes out late Friday evening or early Saturday morning will have some ads. You will also need to go to all the bulliten boards as they often carry many private listings from the home owner. The main boards are outside Superlake Grocery, El Torito Grocery and the Lake Chapala Society. After you have checked these boards you need to visit all the real estate offices and get there rental manager helping you. You will have to follow up with them if they are looking for you as it is rare that they will call you. Followup should be in person for best results.

The Ojo Del Lago comes out around the 1st of the month and the Lake Chapala Review comes out around the 15th. They often have rental ads in their papers. You also need to set your criteria as to what you want and how much you want to pay. Often if you give the owner a 1-2 year lease you can ask them to lower the rent. Things to watch out for: if you are renting privately you MUST get a contract that protects both you and the owner. Lawyers are cheap and it’s well worth your money to use one. Contracts should be in Spanish and English. A contract is not legal if it is not in Spanish, but reputable real estate offices will often only use English. It’s up to you to decide if you want it in Spanish. Most don’t.

You will be asked for a first month rent, last month rent, and a month’s rent as a deposit. Deposits can take 3 months to be returned to you because it can take that long for all the bills to come in that need to be deducted from your deposit. One thing people here do not think about is the direction their house faces. During the hot season of March - June, being in an East/West house will be very hot as it gets all the sunshine, especially afternoon sun. Being in a north/south house will give you lake and mountain breezes. Most here get by with just fans in the house and ceiling fans. It’s a dry heat and can be bearable with a few fans. At night the temperatures do drop and this makes sleeping, with ceiling fan, no problem.

Other things to consider when renting a house: if you are in town expect a lot of noise, i.e. rocket firecrackers during any festival. These are extremely loud and if set off near your house you’ll think you’re in the London bombing. In town you also will not be able to drink the water and you will be buying bottled water from the water man every couple of days. Other areas have wells and you can drink the water. Ask your rental person about the water.

Television - Most houses come with cable. Mexican cable. Many people here do not use the cable company but have direct dish, starchoice or c-band installed. Many houses offer you this option.

Bath Tub - Most house do not have a bath tub, but have very nice showers. If it’s important to you, make sure you look for this.

Toilet Flushing. Most house that are below the highway do not allow flushing of toilet paper. Make sure to ask if the house you are renting has this limitation if it is important to you or your guests.

Gardeners and Maids. Gardeners usually come with the house and sometimes are paid by the owner. If you are paying I would not be concerned as their wages are low and quite affordable to most people. They can be worth their weight in gold if you are having problems in the house and you need to communicate this to Mexican owners. One gardener I had pointed out that we had some black widow spiders on the property and that they should be taken care of. He was worth his weight in gold to us for pointing this out. He also fixed the problem for us. On hot days that your gardener works hard it is often appreciated if you give them a soft drink or a cold beer. Beer is cheap here and it’s a small price to pay to keep a good gardener happy.

Maids coming with the house are usually paid by you. For many we are not used to having a maid and it is a huge adjustment. Most maids know the owner well and will be telling them everything that is going on in the house. Usually they come 2-3 times a week and if you can get used to them they are great for doing all the housework. You place will be spotless when they are done. It is also common to pay the maids bus fare to get to your house and home. When they are getting paid only $2 an hour, a 10 pesos bus trip is a lot of money to them. When you do have a maid in the house make sure all your valuables are out of sight. She will not steal them but she may be telling others what you have and where it is. It’s just a fact of life here.

Last and more important than any of the above is to look at the security in the house. All doors and windows should have some type of grill or metal design that keeps burglers out. Look at the entire house as if you were going to break in and see if you find areas that need reinforcement. You should also be able to lock the doors from the inside as well as the outside. This advice also goes the the garage area. You really need off street parking at any home you rent. Leaving you car on the street is an invitation to having it stolen, mirrors taken or just simply someone keying your car. There are auto places at Lakeside that will put protective rubber around your mirrors so they can not be stolen. No matter where you park, mirrors are the easiest thing to steal.