Rental Apartment Reports

[Nikki]

Sorry to hear about your frustration. In general I would dare saying that it is not " the gringo can't be trusted " but more like " tenants can't be trusted " I once ran a small apartment rental agency with an American girl, we had a small base of owners and we would get long term contracts with no garantias for foreigners, in general Americans and Europeans. It was not easy, this is an atypical market. As much as an apartment can look nice, the building itself is important. Not an issue if you are spending a couple of weeks, but if it's a few months you would appreciate central heating and central hot water, security guard, etc.

Every year the Argentines dream up a new way to piss me off with the apartment I rent.

For years I rented from Olga Rico. After the first year no deposit was required.

She had two great apartments at what would now be an unbelievable price.

On arrival there would about two days supply of food included in the rent.

Unfortunately Olga suffers from the common disease of old age and no longer has the apartments.

I had a problem with the apartment I rented last year and the manager of the agency gave me his word there would not be any problems this year, BS.

The description of the apartment had aire acondicionado Frio Calor, this implies a heat pump but the calor was a typo. Heat is a piddly little electric heater that is slightly better than nothing. The telephone is for incoming calls only, for all outgoing you need a card, not just any card but one that nobody seems to be able to locate. Maid service is weekly, in 20 days she has been here once. The agent requested compensation for the problems but the owner declined. I probably should get an extra set of keys in case they try to screw me out of my deposit so I can come back and trash the place.

Next year, if there is one I will rent on my terms or not at all, I'll provide the lease in English, no deposit and I'll withhold 10% of the rent to insure the renter's performance of the lease. Since the attitude seems to be that the gringos can't be trusted but the Argentines can be I probably won't find an apartment.

Chau Argentina.

Don B.

[Don B]

"Next year, if there is one I will rent on my terms or not at all, I'll provide the lease in English, no deposit and l'll withhold 10% of the rent to insure the renter's performance of the lease. Since the attitude seems to be that the gringos can't be trusted but the Argentines can be I probably won't find an apartment.

Sorry but you won't find one with those agreement conditions is correct. Best to ask one of your friends down here to inspect apt. For you before you rent. But that would not confirm reliable maid service. PS what agency did you use so others can avoid.

I no longer put up with BS, my way or the highway.

About 20 years ago I had a new agent in Bs As he had worked in the US, spoke English and the second thing he said to me when we met was "Everybody here is on the take". He was right and he was part of the everybody. The customer is always right is a lost concept but the old saying that "nobody ever won an argument with a customer still holds. There are beautiful women in both Lima and Santiago and I haven't had ay rental problems there.

Don B.

[Member #3320]

Its not a joke to find a reliable / good apartment here with everything working well to perfection. I found one in 2009 and have been staying there since then.

Maid service is again not a joke. I fired 3-4 different maids before I found a good one. Need lot of trial and error and patience.

This has so many inhabitants and so many apartments. You got to look and search. And if you want a good apartment and a efficient maid, be prepared to spend good money as well.

[Thomaso276]

"Next year, if there is one I will rent on my terms or not at all, I'll provide the lease in English, no deposit and I'll withhold 10% of the rent to insure the renter's performance of the lease. Since the attitude seems to be that the gringos can't be trusted but the Argentines can be I probably won't find an apartment.

Sorry but you won't find one with those agreement conditions is correct. Best to ask one of your friends down here to inspect apt. For you before you rent. But that would not confirm reliable maid service. PS what agency did you use so others can avoid.

[Don B]

Every year the Argentines dream up a new way to piss me off with the apartment I rent.

For years I rented from Olga Rico. After the first year no deposit was required.

She had two great apartments at what would now be an unbelievable price.

On arrival there would about two days supply of food included in the rent.

Unfortunately Olga suffers from the common disease of old age and no longer has the apartments.

I had a problem with the apartment I rented last year and the manager of the agency gave me his word there would not be any problems this year, BS.

The description of the apartment had aire acondicionado Frio Calor, this implies a heat pump but the calor was a typo. Heat is a piddly little electric heater that is slightly better than nothing. The telephone is for incoming calls only, for all outgoing you need a card, not just any card but one that nobody seems to be able to locate. Maid service is weekly, in 20 days she has been here once. The agent requested compensation for the problems but the owner declined. I probably should get an extra set of keys in case they try to screw me out of my deposit so I can come back and trash the place.

Next year, if there is one I will rent on my terms or not at all, I'll provide the lease in English, no deposit and I'll withhold 10% of the rent to insure the renter's performance of the lease. Since the attitude seems to be that the gringos can't be trusted but the Argentines can be I probably won't find an apartment.

Chau Argentina.

Don B.

[Miami Bob]

Renting from these folks is renting from reliable ethical folks. Mike's argentine wife handles the details of local operations These are good people. Sometimes it is worth a small premium for quality. There is somthing about just never wondering if the a/c, internet, heat are going to work well or be quickly fixed is there are problems beyond the management's control. This company only rents apartments that it manages--or at least that was the business plan when i met this nice friendly couple a few years ago.

[Hola Mundo]

Recently, I rented this apartment from.

www.apartmentsinba.com

And everything worked out great. The owner was waiting when I got there, all paperwork was in English and easy to follow. This apartment is very close to 'Subte' and other transportation which I liked, and Av. Santa Fe has 24 hour places to eat, ATM's, and it is safe to walk around the clock. Given that the Av. Santa Fe is a busy street, there always going to be some level of street noisy, but the bedroom is on the back and I didn't have any problems sleeping at night.

I had Mara, and other chicas visit me, and they did not have any problem.

Depending on the market conditions, you always could negotiate the rate you pay.

[Trampa]

Just because the apartment's occupancy calendar on BYT's website shows it is available does not necessary means the apartment was not occupied. This landlord might have multiple rental agents and BYT does not always know when other agents have rented out the place therefore the calendar might show it is unoccupied.

If you book at Byt you will often get the message that the appartment you want to rent is not available because the owner has to confirm it and often won't (living there himself, renting it out himself, gave it away to friends / family / lovers) confirm it.

I think that many owners have somebody occupy the place if it's not rented out and kick him out if somebody is willing to rent for like a month. If it's one week only they might even not bother

www.4rentargentina.com I think has an exclusive deal and the owner must have the appartment available for the time he indicates. The risk for the owner is that there is no interest and if somebody calls he / she can't give it away.

In my opinion 60-70% ocupation rate is about right, 2010 must be a good year

[Exon123]

http://www.barts.com.ar/barts/lodgin...hp?recordID=47

I just spent a week in the Loft Apt. On Baez in Las Canitas, number #47

I cut the deep deal and turned down the free Remis ride in from the Airport and the services of Lucina Love, and promised not to fuck on the leather couch, so the number was $389 US for eight days.

Its a nice clean place, a little on the small side for me but I was comfortable there. High speed internet and so forth. The T. V. as in all Porteno apts has no CNN, BBC or INT, seems the cable companies are charging more for those chanels, so why pay it, only the Americans speak English anyway, no need.

The place is not for "Rookie Mongers", the reason its a $15 peso cab ride into town, which of course makes it another $15 peso's back to the house. Its not the $10 USD round trip cab ride, its the time it takes and if its rush hour its gona take awhile.

The up side is Las Canitas is a "Kick Ass Neighborhood", lots of great restruants, quite, no buses or heavy trucks, lot of beautiful young girl watching.

Since I have my own pussy too Fuck its not nessary for me to go crusing the triangle for strange women so I had "In Call" which worked out well.

Would I repeat, Yes I would, the place is much better than most rentals you'd find threw an agency and the quite beautiful Las Canitas neighborhood makes up for the extra time to commute to the city.

Exon

[David_33]

You might be right, but the calendar was completely green, and I only had the reservation for a couple of days. I doubt that anyone was inconvenienced. And 60% of a weeks rental? Seems kind of abusive to me.

[Sportsman]

Just because the apartment's occupancy calendar on BYT's website shows it is available does not necessary means the apartment was not occupied. This landlord might have multiple rental agents and BYT does not always know when other agents have rented out the place therefore the calendar might show it is unoccupied.

[David_33]

You're probably right. Seems weird that no one ever stayed in the place. Anyway, I'll be here, looks nice and is in the center of the action: http://www.buenosaireshabitat.com/ap...ils.php?id=179

[El Perro]

Found a place which had never had a reservation and had no future reservations either.

You are probably VERY lucky you didn't take that place.

[David_33]

OK, no problem. Partially my fault. But I still think that they are being unreasonable. Since Jackson's apartment where I usually stay is booked solid, I had to search for an alternative. Decided to stay downtown for a change and B & T seemed to have the greatest variety of places available. Found a place which had never had a reservation and had no future reservations either. Talked to them on the phone on Tuesday and gave my credit card details. Decided to take a better place from another company so gave B & T a call today and to be a nice guy said that they could keep their $35 fee anyway. Ha! They told me that I had to read the rules and pay 60% of the rental for cancelation. I mentioned that the apartment had never had any reservations so no one was losing anything from my cancelation after two days, but the response was basically F*** you, we have your credit card number. Anyway, its not the money so much as their attitude. I will post about my experience with the new company I'm dealing with next week after I arrive.

[Punter 127]

Just had a bad experience with this company. Got me for $120.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck, I've used this company several times with good results, but if things are changing I want to know about it, it would help if you would share some details.