The One Where Kata and Fiancé Find a New Rental Apartment in Mexico City

Oh, what a couple of weeks it has been! You might or might not have heard that because of forest fires, pollution, and the fact that Mexico City is located in a valley, the air quality got so bad around mid-May here in the city that a national emergency was declared, schools were closed, tens of thousands of cars were ordered off the streets, and people were encouraged to stay indoors (oh yeah, that small thing). On top of that, the Popocatepetl volcano decided that now was the opportune moment to start spewing ash (hey, no time like the present, eh?), which didn't exactly help the situation.

This picture was supposed to be a demonstration of Popocatepetl spewing its guts out, until Fiancé pointed out that that's probably not Popocatepetl, but just some mountain with smoke behind it. So, now it's just a nice picture to look at (SANS Popocatepetl) with a pointless circle drawn on it.

In the midst of all this craziness, though, something almost as crazy happened (even crazier than having to spell the word Popocatepetl five times in one blog post): Fiancé and I managed to find ourselves a new rental apartment and, last Friday, we finally signed the contract! What's more, the air quality has improved since too and Finland won the ice hockey world championship, so, hooray, happy days!

So. Inspired by our experience of finding a new home in CDMX, I decided that I'd now like to share some of the wisdom I gained along the way. Below you'll find a few useful tips for looking for a rental apartment in Mexico City. Stick around until the end and I'll reveal a couple of details about our new apartment, too!

Don't get scammed!

The first rule of finding a rental apartment anywhere (not just in Mexico City) is to not get scammed! Unfortunately, as much as I'd like to believe in the basic decency of humankind, there seem to be some people out there who don't always have your best interest at heart (What? Shocker).

It's a commonly known fact that when looking for an apartment, you should ask yourself at least the following four questions:

1. Do the pictures of the apartment look like straight out of a Hallmark movie or, better yet, an episode of MTV Cribs (by the way, you 20-somethings, does that show still exist or am I just super old?)?
2. Has your request to go see the apartment been denied (with or without a note attached to an airborne brick that says "Don't ask questions")?
3. If you google the apartment or the name of your landlord/real estate agent, does the word "SCAM" with a gazillion exclamation points (along with a couple of pictures of skulls) pop up?
4. Have the words "Nigerian prince" been mentioned?

A double red flag

If your answer to any of these questions is YES, then chances are you're being scammed. If your answer to ALL of these questions is NO, then there's only a fifty-fifty chance you're being scammed (hey, I never promised a foolproof plan!).

Perhaps a better way to make sure that if you are, in fact, being scammed, the only thing that gets hurt in the process is your ego (and not your bank account, for instance) is to follow this list of very simple dos and dont's:

DON'T

• pay any deposits, first month's rent, insurance, etc. before your and your landlord's or landlady's name is on that dotted line

• give up your current apartment until you have a contract (in case the deal falls through at the last minute)

DO

• go see the apartment beforehand and make sure everything is in order there

• ask a copy of the previous tenant's last water, gas, and electricity bill to make sure you're not being charged for more than you're consuming

These might seem like pretty basic things, but you'd be surprised about how many people out there have been too trusting and ended up getting burned - and that is a club you don't want to join!

(By the way, if you have more - and better - tips, please do share in the comment section!)

Location, location, location...

One of the most commonly asked questions on different CDMX expat forums is "What is the best area to live in Mexico City?" Well, as it turns out, this is actually not an easy question to answer because an ideal location for one person might be less ideal for another.

The "trendy areas" of the city (also favored by expats) are, for instance, Condesa, Roma Norte, and Polanco. Especially the first two have a lot of cute restaurants, cafés, bars, and nightlife nearby. The prices of rents might be a bit higher than elsewhere in the city (especially Polanco is quite pricey), unless you know where to look. In fact, I've heard that because of the 2018 movie Roma, it's now harder than before to find a reasonably-priced apartment in the Roma Norte area (not sure if this is just an urban real estate legend, though).

Roma in living color 😉

In my opinion, it's also wise to consider where you work. As mentioned in a previous post, the traffic in Mexico City is an absolute killer! If you use four hours of your day commuting (two hours each way, and I exaggerate not at all!), the chances are that the commute will suck the fun out of living in a trendy neighborhood pretty fast!

Would you like to spend hours and hours on end every day staring at THIS view? Would you, would you, would you?

Sometimes you have to make a choice between living in a trendy area and keeping your commute time to a minimum. My fiancé and I chose the latter, but there are no right or wrong answers, of course. It comes down to what you value more (but don't say I didn't warn you 😉).

Papers, papers, papers

Oh, Lordy. This was the most frustrating part of this whole process. I've lived in rental apartments in five different countries in my life and never have I been asked for more papers than in Mexico City! And not only is it enough that you as the tenant gather up your documents. You also have to kindly ask your fiador/aval (the person who will vouch for you) to go through their piles and piles of paper, find stuff that nobody has just lying around (like a marriage certificate acquired several decades ago), and somehow come out of that experience in one piece (no small feat, this one).

The documents that were asked of us were (among others):

1. basic information form (filled out)
2. official ID
3. bank statement from the past 3 months (you need to prove you have more than three months' rent on your account)
4. proof of salary
5. those gazillions of papers required from the fiador/aval

As mentioned before, the fiador or aval is a person who is willing to vouch for you. This person is doing you a favor out of the goodness of their heart and getting nothing in return (expect never-ending pestering about those damn papers). The bad news for expats (and out-of-towners) is that a fiador/aval cannot be just any old person off the streets. It has to be a person who owns property in the same city where you want to rent the apartment, so if you want to live in Mexico City and you know someone who owns property in Monterrey, you're out of luck.

Nevertheless, I have heard that there are other ways of going about this (such as getting a specific insurance), but it appears to be very case-dependent.

Safety

Right. So. I have pretty conflicted feelings about this topic. So much so, in fact, that I wasn't sure I was even going to write about it. First of all, I don't want to encourage anybody to live in fear. I've lived in enough places to know that anything - good or bad - can happen to anyone at any time anywhere.

However.

It is wise to recognize that Mexico City is a big city (the biggest in the world, in fact) with big city problems. While I have personally never been afraid for my safety here (then again, I've only been here for about six months, so I guess I still have time), I wouldn't encourage anybody to take unnecessary risks either. Going to a dark alley alone at 11 pm to take pictures for your scrapbook, for example, is one of those things that - in my opinion - would constitute an unnecessary risk.

I think it would be a good idea to ask around and do your research about which neighborhoods are safe and which ones are less so. Of course, people can have differing opinions about this, but the more you do your research, the better the chances you'll find the best neighborhood for your needs. Some buildings also promise 24-hour security.

Also, bear in mind, that it's not only crime that you need to be worried about. There are other fun things that can get you, too, for example, earthquakes and the volcano (yayyy... wait, what?)! And to add insult to injury, Mexico City is built on a lake, so the capital is (get this) slowly sinking (gulp). Because of the lake, even faraway earthquakes are felt strongly here (wait, why did I move here again?).

Instructions on what to do in case of earthquakes (sismos). I like the last picture (where the guy is running away) the best.

In case of an earthquake, some parts of the city can be more affected than others. Again, I encourage you to do your research!

Our checklist

So. After not getting scammed, choosing the right (and safe) location for us, and gathering up tons and tons of documents, what kind of a place did we end up getting?

Well, long story short, I'm happy to say that our apartment checks all the important boxes for us. Here's what we wanted:

Our home is not in any of these buildings, by the way 😜

✅close to work
✅safe neighborhood
✅half-furnished

✅fridge (surprisingly many apartments we saw didn't have a fridge!)
✅Starbucks nearby (before you judge, let me just say that I'm a writer, so I need my place to write, drink coffee - Starbucks coffee, not "real" coffee -, and stare wistfully out the window)
✅washer-dryer
✅grocery store nearby (actually, turns out that people order their food online these days, so this wasn't as important as we'd thought)
✅gym or a park nearby for running (otherwise we won't make the effort)
❌dishwasher (didn't get this one - nobody's perfect, I guess)

So, there you have it, our new home in a nutshell!

Closing words

That's all, folks! A special thank-you to Paty who has given us a great place to stay 💖! Myself, my fiancé and all eight of our children will be moving to our new apartment in the next few days!

The kiddos are excited to move!

So. Until next time...

... hasta luego 😊!