All the planning and preparation can’t prepare one for the unknown. What we did know is that we wanted to rent a home instead of buy as we get more acquainted with Cuenca and the area. Today, in finding a house in Ecuador (and some pictures of my house too), I want to share a few tips and talk about some of the people we learned about in our house quest.
Plus, I just can’t wait for you to see the house we are renting because we have plenty of room now.
Look at my rental house hunt tips and things to know about renting here in Cuenca:
It can take anywhere from 3 weeks up to 2 months to find close to what you are looking for in a rental home. For some people, it takes much longer.
I confess secretly I thought I would be able to find a house sooner than we did because I had my checklist of what was important. I soon realized my list was only half of what needed to be considered.
Realizing that other things affected our decision were equally important. Things like security and location, which becomes pretty important when you don’t have a vehicle, details of the rental contract become significantly important too and of course there are options like furnished, semi-furnished and not furnished at all, which makes for myriads of options.
Hiring a local gringo, named Brandon, who has lived here in Ecuador for quite a few years to help us find our home was one thing we did right.
When we met with him, he wanted all of his payment ($300.00) up front. We normally don’t do business that way because leverage is a great motivator to completing a job and because we didn’t know him.
(Brandon and my hubby after we found our house.)
However, after meeting Brandon and his local Ecuadorian girlfriend, who was a nice added bonus with her language skills and negotiating know now, we felt comfortable with them.
Also, he had received great feedback on referrals we read on Gringo Post.
Not only did Brandon and his girlfriend work with us the whole time, they helped to translate the rental contract once we found our home. Brandon was able to listen to our needs and help us narrow down to the area we wanted and gave us advice on staying away from other areas of town.
Because we enjoyed working with him, we also hired him to help my husband negotiate for the best prices for furniture. There is so much to learn about the Ecuadorian way of doing business, that for us, the money was well spent to helping us avoid trouble down the road.
As far as the house we wanted, you know I said I have my check list of needs versus want and I had read many things about the homes here in Ecuador.
Most homes do not have clothes dryers, but then again, it takes the clothes less time to dry on a clothes line. I have not seen clothes hung on a line since I was a little girl, but I am fast adopting their easy way of doing laundry.
Homes are not plumbed to have hot water for the washing machine either. All clothes are washed in cold. And yes, contrary to popular belief, the showers have hot water.
Also, dish washers are few and far between.
We only saw one house for rent that had a dishwasher and it was owned by an American in the states. Of course the rental price on it was $200.00 higher than most of the other rental homes.
One more tip to keep in mind is that unless the house is newer, homes with bath tubs are hard to find too.
Though we found plenty of new and beautiful homes, their location being out of the city was not ideal for us either.
Sure, we can learn the bus system, but when there are five us trekking through the streets, it’s not so easy.
Here is one home we almost pulled the trigger on because I love having some kind of outside space.
Unless you rent in the country, yards are almost non-existent. So having an outside terrace or space was important to us.
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Though the space wasn’t really outside, having the glass roof (which is very common here) because there is no air conditioner here, all homes have windows way up high that are open.
This house was new and I could just picture a water garden with flowers and a waterfall, but it was still just 3 bedrooms and 2 baths and $550.00 per month unfurnished.
I know I wasn’t quite ready to start buying new furniture all over again after getting rid of mine. So we started looking for something bigger and somewhat semi furnished.
After all the weeks of looking and almost pulling the trigger on a couple of homes that we liked, but didn’t really fall in love with, we finally found one we just fell in love with.
A true Ecuadorian house with plenty of space for us. This house has 5 bedrooms, two kitchens, 5 bathrooms and a maid’s quarters. Though we are paying $750.00 per month, which is double the rental price here, we also are paying for a lot more room and an updated home.
Too, though, it was semi-furnished which was the other thing we were wanting. I don’t want to spend my time furnishing a whole house again, but there are some things I draw the line on when renting, like purchasing my own new mattress.
(I love this kitchen because it is so cheery and big, BUT one of the best things about this house is that it has TWO kitchens. The one I am actually using is in the back of the house and I can keep this one pretty clean for unexpected guest.)
(This is the second floor and 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms are off this floor. You see that spiral staircase on the right, okay you can barely see it, but there are two more bedrooms upstairs.)
(This area is my FAVORITE part of the house and where we will be spending our school days at. It is so cheery and bright. Look at the next picture to see why.)
(Like a lot of homes here, they have glass roofs with open windows. The open windows is the “natural air conditioner”. With the beautiful weather and light, we love schooling in this room for the short time we have been here.)
(This is the view of the room from the second and third floors above.)
(Then this is the part of the house where the laundry room is located too. You see those curtains or shades above the chandelier? We just roll open to let in more sun or roll closed because the sun here at the equator is VERY bright.)
(Even though everybody is in this picture as we are looking over the house before we rent it, I wanted you to see how most Ecuadorian woman wash. Okay, not all woman wash this way because I have seen woman down at the Tomebamba River doing laundry. But those who do own their own homes are proud of an area like this. You can see the washing machine in the back and right above that clothes line. A lot of homes have clothes line outside on the terrace too.)
(Going up the second story, there is this beautiful mural of the Ecuadorian countryside.)
(And finally, all the bedrooms are bright, spacious and have TONS of built in storage. Certainly, more storage for clothes than our two suitcases each that we brought.)
We are already loving our new home and though I miss my old home just a bit, our new home with all the local flavor and traditions of Ecuador have made our transition here a memorable one. We are so happy with our new home.
And my best tip for finding a home here is: Do Not Settle.
If you have patience, you will find what you want and what the home doesn’t have, doesn’t really matter.
Hugs and love ya,
Check out my other posts on living in Ecuador.
8 Small Things About Traveling to Cuenca, Ecuador that Make a Big Difference
5 Things I Love About Cuenca Ecuador
