Finding Rentals Overseas

The best way to source a rental most places around the world is by word-of-mouth.

You can search on the internet, but, as with property for sale, the rentals you find this way are typically the most expensive, certainly if you search English-language sites in a non-English-speaking market. Your chances of getting a better deal are increased if you reference sites in the local language. Still, going this route, you’re going to find only those properties for rent by locals with the wherewithal to advertise on the net.

You can also source rentals through local print classifieds. This can be an effective method, a way to penetrate the local market and to gain access to local pricing, but only if you read and speak the local language fluently.

Understanding Italian well enough to read a rental property listing in a local newspaper in Abruzzo, for example, isn’t enough. You’ve got to be able to speak Italian well enough to have a conversation by telephone with the owner to arrange a viewing appointment. Then you’ve got to feel comfortable enough in your Italian to meet with him (or her) in person, at the property, to ask your questions, to negotiate the price and other particulars, and, ultimately, to review the rental agreement (which, of course, will be in Italian if that’s the language of the country where you’re shopping).

We’ve known many people who’ve successfully sourced rentals this way and been happy with the results, but we, for example, couldn’t do it without help… not in a market where the language is Italian anyway.

The most efficient and effective strategy, therefore, certainly if you’re not fluent in the local lingo, is to ask around. You can begin this process before you arrive in your new home, but finding a suitable rental in the right location for you at a good price can be a difficult thing to accomplish from afar.

Say you ask around from the comfort of your armchair. One of your sources replies to tell you about a rental in such-and-such neighborhood available for such-and-such price. It sounds great in the email, the best value you’ve come across. But is it a place you’d want to live? Making that determination without having seen the place yourself can be dangerous. Maybe you’d trust your best friend or your significant other to scout and secure a rental on your behalf, but we’ve known even that to backfire.

The problem is that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.

It’s not the end of the world, of course, if you rent an apartment sight unseen that turns out to be less than you were hoping for (or led to expect). Eventually, the lease term will expire, and you could move wherever you like. Maybe you could even negotiate with the landlord to get released from your rental contract early.

However, in some countries, this is not easily accomplished, and, regardless, the negotiation is a hassle you don’t want during what should be the honeymoon period in your new home in paradise. Better to set your own two eyes on a place before you hand over the security deposit and the first and last months’ rent (as you’ll likely have to do, though sometimes these terms are open for discussion).

It may sound like a non-strategy, but the best approach for many is simply to make a reservation at a hotel or Airbnb located in the area where you think you’d like to live. Plan to stay up to four or five weeks. It may not take you this long to find a place to live more permanently, but don’t be discouraged if it does.

We were guests of the Granville Hotel in Waterford, Ireland, for a full eight weeks (we negotiated a discounted long-term rate with the manager) before we finally found the rental cottage that became our first home in that city. Easing into a place this way gives you a chance to get the lay of the land and to take your time considering your options.

We knew not a soul in Waterford, Ireland, when we first arrived in the city as foreign residents in 1999. We were out of our element and on our own, with no local network of support. We quickly figured out that the Irish property market, for both sales and rentals, doesn’t much resemble the one in the United States (there’s no Multiple Listing Service, and agents don’t share listings). We knew that the ideas and expectations we’d brought with us from the States had to be adjusted. But how? To what?

We began making inquiries about available rentals at the front desk of our hotel, of fellow shoppers standing in line at the grocery store, of fellow parents at our daughter’s school, in the bank, and of every taxi driver we encountered. Finally, someone gave us the address of a small office he thought might be available for rental.

It took a while, and we were desperate by the time something turned up, but we managed to find both an office for our new business and a home for our family entirely through word of mouth. Not a chance we’d have found these properties any other way.

We were won over by the little two-bedroom apartment that we ended up living in for months by the location but also by the furnishings. Rentals in Ireland, both short (a few weeks or a few months) and long (six months or longer) term, come furnished. On the one hand, this was welcome news for us at the time, as our furniture was in a container on a ship somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

On the other hand, “furnished” is one of those words that loses something in translation from American English to Irish English. Even the higher-end rentals we viewed had but bare-bones furnishings. Some didn’t even have central heating (this would be much less true today), and few properties had things like dishwashers.

We were delighted, therefore, with our discovery, which boasted “all mod cons,” as the Irish would say (all modern conveniences). We negotiated price and terms for renting on the spot. We sealed the deal, our second of the morning, with a handshake.

So that’s Strategy #1: Word-of-mouth.

In addition, we recommend that you consider a parallel Strategy #2: Engaging the help of a rental agent.

In most markets, the landlord pays the fee, and, in some, it’s split between the owner and the renter. We’d argue that, in a place where the person you eventually rent from is responsible for paying the agent’s commission, why not enlist the services of a broker in your search? This may seem to contradict our recommendation to seek out your rental by asking around in the place where you want to rent, but that’s not necessarily so. If it costs you nothing, why not have an agent search along with you? You pursue your word-of-mouth strategy, while the agent does his (or her) thing.

The downside is that, even though you’re not paying it, the agent is still working for a fee, which is typically based on the monthly rental amount. In other words, the agent isn’t going to knock himself out trying to find super-cheap options. He’ll work within your parameters, but he’ll bring you the options that will earn him a greater commission. You can always politely decline interest, of course.

The other advantage to engaging a broker’s help sourcing a rental (in addition to expanding your search basis) is that, in some markets, the agent’s job isn’t over when the rental agreement is signed.

Bottom line, to find the real deals in any market, you’re going to have to connect locally. If you’re operating in a market where the language isn’t English, this means you’ll have to read and speak the local language or have a contact on the ground you trust who reads and speaks the local language.