Author Topic: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping  (Read 4757 times)

Trudie

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Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« on: August 29, 2020, 11:34:23 PM »
We’re going into our second year of FIRE, and despite Covid it’s been great.  We bought a condo, mortgage-free in our favorite university town.  Lots to do.  Close to campus.  Reasonable cost of living.

We live in the midwest, and some may be shocked to hear that I hate summers more than our winters.  I mean, in reality there aren’t many great weather days, and in the heat of summer, or in the shoulder seasons of spring and fall we think of going elsewhere.  Hot, humid days are the worst.

We didn’t blow the bank to buy our condo so could possibly buy another modest property, but the reality is that I don’t want the expense and hassle.  Money tied up in real estate, even annual maintenance and property taxes, seems to be inefficient.  And really, we like to see different places.  I can’t imagine keeping tabs on another home in a distant city.

We’re not campers, but I’m interested in stories from others who have rented properties by the month away from your primary home.  How did you find property to rent?  Cost?  Places you’d recommend?
« Last Edit: August 29, 2020, 11:36:00 PM by Trudie »

Kwill

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #1 on: August 30, 2020, 01:59:26 AM »
I'm not FIRE, but I rented a room in a shared apartment in Tokyo for six weeks one summer through Sakura House. It was very easy to set up, and everything was convenient. My place was having some work done outside during the day, and I wish I had asked about that ahead of time. The cost was less than I expected for a monthly furnished room, but Japanese friends said I could have found a better deal elsewhere. For setting it up in English from abroad, though, I think it was reasonable. They have a range of places from private apartments to shared flats to hostels.

Roadrunner53

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #2 on: August 30, 2020, 03:10:48 AM »
Trudie, I also HATE hot humid weather. We are in CT and this summer has been disgusting. I tell the Hub all the time we could manage Florida, because CT weather has had something like forty 90 +/- days this summer. Yesterday wasn't that hot but the humidity made it feel like walking into a steam bath. My hair frizzed into a tumbleweed.

I will be interested to see how this topic goes!

2Birds1Stone

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #3 on: August 30, 2020, 03:54:17 AM »
Rented a really nice apartment in Lisbon Portugal for ~$920/month all in. It was right in Bario Alto with a close walk to public transit, the city center, and parks.

Highly recommend Portugal in general.

Rdy2Fire

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #4 on: August 30, 2020, 06:55:27 AM »
Love this idea. it's a plan of mine as well. I have done some shorter rentals 1-2 weeks in Argentina, Japan and Spain. Early this year was going to be my 1st try and more of a long term and I was going to do 3-4 weeks each in 2 different areas of Thailand. Covid put an end to that but I'm going to look to the future to do it

So to answer your question a bit, I don't have specific places/apartments to advise but cities or places I'd consider to start Tokyo, Shanghai, Thailand, India (people love it or hate it), Spain (Malaga or the cost), Sicily, I haven't actual been but this is a place I'd like to do a month, same with Crete. Also I'd suggest Argentina for a couple of months, in a couple of places.. The list goes on and on, of course in some of the larger places you with have access to good public transport (like all of Japan, Shanghai, Buenos Aires, etc) and others are cheap enough that you can get around inexpensively with taxi's uber or even local buses if you're open to that.
« Last Edit: August 30, 2020, 07:02:05 AM by Rdy2Fire »

SwissMiss

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #5 on: August 30, 2020, 10:26:19 AM »
We rented an Airbnb for three months in Malaga, Spain. Then for a month in Berlin. And this year, three months in Cape Town.
About USD 800 per month and very good apartments.

Highly recommend not buying a second home. Way too much hassle!

bacchi

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #6 on: August 30, 2020, 10:38:56 AM »
Rented a really nice apartment in Lisbon Portugal for ~$920/month all in. It was right in Bario Alto with a close walk to public transit, the city center, and parks.

Highly recommend Portugal in general.

We were supposed to be in Porto this summer. What a bummer.

More locally, there are some towns in the PNW that have great summers.

Loren Ver

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #7 on: August 30, 2020, 11:59:14 AM »
Ah the mid-west.  That is where we are.  I actually love winter and would chase it around the world if DH wasn't a home body.  Unfortunately his idea of a good time is building junk out of junk so a home base is a must.  He also doesn't like to fly so 4 wheels is the way to go when we travel as a team. 

Long way of saying PTF :).




lhamo

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #8 on: August 30, 2020, 01:44:12 PM »
The Pacific Northwest typically still has great weather most of September and sometimes into early October -- warm, sunny days mostly with cool evenings.  July and August are also much cooler than most places, but seasonal rentals will be more expensive as that is when everybody wants to be here.  May/June is also an option, but the weather is a crapshoot -- the last couple of years were drier/warmer than normal, but this year was very cold and wet.

FurnishedFinder.com is geared toward traveling nurses and seems to have better rates for longer stays (many places are 1-3 months minimum).

Mr. Green

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2020, 08:02:50 PM »
We are travelling right now, and have looked extensively at AirBnb and VRBO. The pandemic has been a huge boon to the short-term rental business. We are having extreme difficulty finding anything reasonable.

I'm finding "couch" rentals (crashing on someone's living room sofa) running $70-80 a night. Of course, we're looking at rentals for the immediate future and we aren't willing to share air with a stranger. Even for a stay as long as a month, we aren't finding anything under about $100 a night.

It may not be any better next summer. We're well past the point of no return to contain this coronavirus and it will take quite some time to mass produce a vaccine to where things might normalize. Perhaps people will just "get used to it" and drop some safety precautions, decreasing demand for getaway rentals.

Long story short, if you peruse AirBnb right now the prices you will find are way out of whack because of the 'Rona.

Mr. Green

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #10 on: August 30, 2020, 08:17:03 PM »
As places go, where we're at right now (Colorado Springs, CO) is pretty cool if you like outdoors stuff like hiking. It's also a large city of about 500,000 so I expect there's a bunch of other cool stuff we can't even get into because of the pandemic. Manitou Springs and Old Colorado City bleed into Colorado Springs so that's more to explore. Pikes Peak and a couple national forests are here. If there wasn't a pandemic going on I'd definitely consider spending a month here.

I also second the PNW, specifically the Olympic Peninsula.

Trudie

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #11 on: August 30, 2020, 08:42:17 PM »
Rented a really nice apartment in Lisbon Portugal for ~$920/month all in. It was right in Bario Alto with a close walk to public transit, the city center, and parks.

Highly recommend Portugal in general.

We were supposed to be in Porto this summer. What a bummer.

More locally, there are some towns in the PNW that have great summers.

Please elaborate, if you can, on Porto and places in the PNW —- esp. Olympic Peninsula.

bacchi

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #12 on: August 30, 2020, 10:35:33 PM »
Rented a really nice apartment in Lisbon Portugal for ~$920/month all in. It was right in Bario Alto with a close walk to public transit, the city center, and parks.

Highly recommend Portugal in general.

We were supposed to be in Porto this summer. What a bummer.

More locally, there are some towns in the PNW that have great summers.

Please elaborate, if you can, on Porto and places in the PNW —- esp. Olympic Peninsula.

Much of the eastern Olympic Peninsula is in the rain shadow, which means less rain and sunnier summers.

Port Townsend has more to do around town (pre-covid). It's also more expensive, which is reflected in the stores and downtown area.

Port Angeles is not as..."cool" as PT. For example, there's only 1 brewery in PA but 3 in PT, even though PA is 2x as large and has drive through traffic to Olympic NP. Everyone has been waiting for PA to become a destination and it's never happened but, as mentioned, it sits just outside Olympic NP and has a ferry line to Victoria, BC (Had? Borders are closed.)

Sequim is way cheaper than both but it's dead (and, relatedly, has a lot of elderly residents). As somewhere to rent, it may work the best pricewise if you don't mind driving to the coast or park.

Olympia is a cool small city. Probably best to avoid off-season; it's very rainy.

Trifle

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #13 on: August 31, 2020, 03:58:14 AM »
We rented an Airbnb for three months in Malaga, Spain. Then for a month in Berlin. And this year, three months in Cape Town.
About USD 800 per month and very good apartments.

Highly recommend not buying a second home. Way too much hassle!

@SwissMiss -- why did you choose Malaga over other Spanish cities?  We're looking at doing a 1-2 month rental in Spain, hopefully next year.  If you had it to do over again, would you go back to Malaga, or base somewhere else?
« Last Edit: August 31, 2020, 10:24:40 AM by Trifele »

stoaX

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #14 on: August 31, 2020, 06:32:38 AM »
Posting to follow as well.

MrThatsDifferent

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #15 on: August 31, 2020, 12:42:23 PM »
We rented an Airbnb for three months in Malaga, Spain. Then for a month in Berlin. And this year, three months in Cape Town.
About USD 800 per month and very good apartments.

Highly recommend not buying a second home. Way too much hassle!

@SwissMiss -- why did you choose Malaga over other Spanish cities?  We're looking at doing a 1-2 month rental in Spain, hopefully next year.  If you had it to do over again, would you go back to Malaga, or base somewhere else?

I’d go with Valencia over Malaga. All the Brits go to Malaga. Valencia is a fascinating city, mixture of old and new and has a beach.

Mr. Green

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #16 on: August 31, 2020, 04:54:47 PM »
We just visited Manitou Springs (next to Colorado Springs) today and man what a cool little town. There's a Cog train that runs up to Pike's Peak (closed for maintenance) and the Manitou Incline ( a notoriously difficult hike). And then town has all kinds of cool shops and eateries. And the stream runs right through the town with some houses built over it.

We will definitely be coming back to Colorado Springs post-COVID with all the cool stuff there is here.

JoJo

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #17 on: September 01, 2020, 08:23:55 AM »
Following.

I managed to snag a 2B/2B mobile home in Tuscon for a month in November.  Sharing with a friend so cost is $800/each.   Booked on Airbnb.  Their fees are quite high, but give you certain protections and you can always pay by credit cards, and get points.

Hot tip:  They have monthly rates with discounts if you book 30 days, but always try adding another day or two.  Sometimes when you go over a magic number, which varies by locality, you no longer have to pay taxes.  Usually that is around a full month. 

For example, my friend tried Nov 1 - Nov 30, rate included taxes.  booking Oct 30-Nov 30 was a little bit cheaper because no taxes were added. 

Missy B

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #18 on: September 02, 2020, 11:25:50 PM »


Port Angeles is not as..."cool" as PT. For example, there's only 1 brewery in PA but 3 in PT, even though PA is 2x as large and has drive through traffic to Olympic NP. Everyone has been waiting for PA to become a destination and it's never happened but, as mentioned, it sits just outside Olympic NP and has a ferry line to Victoria, BC (Had? Borders are closed.)



The ferry comes in to Victoria from Port Angeles just about right downtown, so you can walk to lots of cool stuff -- lots of shops, the Museum of Anthropology, the Empress, parliament buildings -- right from the ferry. It's a very nice, car-free trip.
When the border reopens again...

SwissMiss

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #19 on: September 03, 2020, 01:26:12 PM »
We rented an Airbnb for three months in Malaga, Spain. Then for a month in Berlin. And this year, three months in Cape Town.
About USD 800 per month and very good apartments.

Highly recommend not buying a second home. Way too much hassle!

@SwissMiss -- why did you choose Malaga over other Spanish cities?  We're looking at doing a 1-2 month rental in Spain, hopefully next year.  If you had it to do over again, would you go back to Malaga, or base somewhere else?

Yes! I would absolutely go back to Malaga!
Loved every minute.
The British are more in Torremolinos, about 10k away from Malaga. We had our mountain bikes and we used them a lot in the hills.
Someone else mentioned Valencia. I have good things about this city too, but I've never been there.

SwissMiss

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #20 on: September 03, 2020, 01:29:30 PM »
We rented an Airbnb for three months in Malaga, Spain. Then for a month in Berlin. And this year, three months in Cape Town.
About USD 800 per month and very good apartments.

Highly recommend not buying a second home. Way too much hassle!

@SwissMiss -- why did you choose Malaga over other Spanish cities?  We're looking at doing a 1-2 month rental in Spain, hopefully next year.  If you had it to do over again, would you go back to Malaga, or base somewhere else?

I’d go with Valencia over Malaga. All the Brits go to Malaga. Valencia is a fascinating city, mixture of old and new and has a beach.

I have heard good things about Valencia. Fortunately, the Brits seem to congregate more in Torremolinos, which is outside of Malaga.

BigMoneyJim

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #21 on: September 04, 2020, 07:15:35 PM »
Posting mostly to follow, but I also babble a lot...

Are y'all trolling me? As I've babbled elsewhere on this forum, I wanted to move to Kitsap County WA pre-pandemic then aborted to stay in my Dallas house. I hate the climate here, and since I retired 11 months ago there's not really any reason to stay here for me anymore.

I quite recently decided to go ahead and move mid-pandemic, but to Colorado instead, and most likely the greater Colorado Springs area.

More recently I've decided to try nomadic living in that I won't own or lease a place, but I'll just stay for a month to a couple of months in airbnbs and such.

I know some airbnb's have monthly discounts, but at first I didn't know how to search for them. Then I went ahead as an availability test and searched for the dates of Oct 1 - Oct 31 for the Co Spgs area, and lo and behold not only do I get a list of available airbnbs, but it crosses out the daily rate and highlights the monthly discount for properties that have them! (A lot of monthly discounts are pretty deep...after all they don't have to clean the place every 2nd or 3rd day while you're there.)

I'll be checking out the other resources listed in this thread and other nomadic/digital-nomad threads.

And as far as cost, since I won't have a 'home base' lease or owned property, and I don't have to set up utilities at the airbnb, the cost doesn't seem so out there compared to renting and paying all the utilities and fees and such.

(I also don't want to camp nor RV/van-life.)
« Last Edit: September 04, 2020, 07:18:20 PM by BigMoneyJim »

Dicey

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #22 on: September 06, 2020, 10:56:56 AM »
PTF

Roadrunner53

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #23 on: September 07, 2020, 01:57:00 PM »
Why would the rental place care if you paid taxes or not? Why would they make you move out for one day? If it is a state law I could see it but can't see why a rental place would care. Not like they are getting part of the tax money

BigMoneyJim

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #24 on: September 07, 2020, 02:08:40 PM »
I don't know about the tax situation, but I know in some locales, tenancy laws/rights go into effect after a month.

I've often wondered about that from the short-term rental property owner point of view, but that's not where I am, and if folks are going to let me stay a month or two I'm not going to raise a fuss.

BigMoneyJim

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Re: Talk to me about monthly rentals in nifty places...no camping
« Reply #25 on: September 07, 2020, 06:40:37 PM »
Oh, that reminds me. When I was trying too hard to "pre-move" in recent years, I was looking into buying a 2nd house 2200 miles away while still employed and renting it out until I retired and/or moved. (Really glad I didn't do this for several reasons.)

The mortgage type may restrict use of the property! I would have had to decide ahead of time whether I was going to do long-term leases or short-term stays. If doing short-term, and I spent a certain amount of time in the house each year, I could get a mortgage on it as a "vacation home". I don't recall the hangups of short-term rentals for the type of mortgage that would allow me to be a yearly-lease landlord, but there was a difference and potential penalties involved.

But I imagine that varies greatly by locale. And I imagine a lot of rule-breaking flies below the radar. Well, I'm sure it does as a lot of airbnb listings beg you not to discuss your agreement staying there and that you are a "guest of <owner>".