Part II: How to Rent a Temporary Furnished Apartment in Buenos Aires
Welcome to the second part of what must be a fascinating series for those of you who have no intention of ever renting an apartment in Buenos Aires!
(In case you missed it, here’s Part I.)
REAL ESTATE RENTAL FIRMS
I’ve talked about this before, but it bears repeating: the real estate agents who list apartments for rent are often middlemen with little to no knowledge of the actual apartment or its owner. It is important to understand this when you are attempting to rent an apartment and when you have problems that must be rectified once you are in a flat.
Also, the majority of owners list their apartments with multiple agencies, none of which know what the others are doing. So, even if an agency Web site says an apartment is available, it still may not be. What does this mean for you, the lessee? It means that until a reservation deposit has been sent and accepted for an apartment, it could become “unavailable” at any point in the rental process. For this reason, when communicating with a real estate firm, you want to ask the direct question, “Have you talked to the owner and confirmed the apartment is available?” If they have not spoken to the owner, their promises of availability are meaningless.
AGENCIES THAT WE’VE USED
- Buenos Aires Habitat. This is probably the most professional firm with which we have dealt in Buenos Aires. They actually had an inventory list, gave us a complete tour prior to bringing out the contract, and the apartment was very nice and was accurately reflected in the Web photos.
- By T Argentina. This is the agency for our current apartment rental. They have a good assortment of nice properties, were responsive and easy to deal with, and I like the way that they handle reserving the unit — you use a credit card, which they only charge if you cancel the reservation, so there are no weird wire transfers or Western Union experiences to put your home-away-from-home on hold.
- Apartments Express. The gentleman who owns this firm is very nice, but the apartment we rented from him was truly awful — the Tiki lounge, which we posted about several times, here, here, and here was an out-of-date apartment with myriad problems.
- Welcome2Ba. We were very unhappy with the service we received from this agency. They put us into a very expensive rental that was completely falling apart (it took us 3 weeks to get a functioning telephone). When the “owner” came to supposedly take care of things, it turns out it was the owner’s nephew and the agency didn’t even know. They tried to show the apartment to prospective buyers during our rental contract, but no one had mentioned that the place was for sale. They also screwed up the lease and didn’t indicate a departure time, and then right before we left, started sweating us to leave early for a new tenant. Horrible experience.
OTHER AGENCY COMMENTS
- Baires Apartments. We will not use this agency again. We spent quite a bit of time working out a contract with this agency, and when we were ready to deliver the reservation deposit to their office, all of a sudden it turned out the apartment wasn’t available because the owners lived there during the entire school year. Clearly, this was something the agent should have known before they agreed to rent it to us during the school year!
- Web sites of firms we have searched, but whom we haven’t worked with: Best Rentals, Apartments BA, 4 Rent Argentina, Luxury BA, Alternativa Temporary Rent, Apartments Baires, Living in Baires, Aloja Argentina, My Space BA, Idea Rental, Pura Buenos Aires, Homes BA, Alsol Baires, Buenos Aires Rentals, Si Baires, BA Urban, Buenos Aires Apartments, BA Simple Rent, Easy Rent, Way to BAway, and Friendly Rentals (they do some longer-term work as well).
Disclaimer. This is by no means an exhaustive list and is meant only to impart information on the firms with which we have worked and/or searched. We make no warranties or representations about what your experience will be!
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While I can’t comment specifically on the BsAs branch of Friendly Rentals, the Madrid office (a satellite of the Barcelona office) was truly awful. Everyone was “friendly”, but no one took any responsibility for anything, mostly just passing you off to someone else. Besides money, we ended up losing about 3 days of a 10 day vacation just fighting with them until we finally moved out to a different place.
Thanks for the feedback Dennis. Your experience really highlights the middleman nature of the agents here, and how important it is to have contact and connection with the owner as well. In the States only very expensive cities use agents for renting (Boston, NY, SF, for example), but at least there the agents have real relationships with the Landlords and can be helpful. I am shocked at how often here the agents don’t know anyone from the Landlord’s side.
[…] 19th century were torn between two destinations: Buenos Aires or New York… Tuesday, 14 April Part II: How to Rent a Temporary Furnished Apartment in Buenos Aires[micheleandtom.com] Welcome to the second part of what must be a fascinating series for those of you […]
Hi everyone!
I spent a great time last month in Buenos Aires. I rented a furnished apartment in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, near the down town. I suggest that service called ForRent Argentina: Buenos Aires apartments For Rent
Cheers,
Fred
Just to add to this: we have rented apartments through ApartmentsBA, for a month at a time, for three years in a row. We have always been delighted with their professionalism and by the speedy way they resolved any issues. Their listings may be expensive but in our experience their service and standard has always been high.
Thanks for adding the info Vicki!
Hi there! this is my third time in Buenos Aires. I´ll tell you a small story, when I first arrived I stayd at a hotel but wanted some privacy, so I started searching and found one that it´s usually recommended; I booked online a really cool apt in Palermo, but when I got there… they told me I couldnt move in because they haven´t spoke with the owner and there where people satying in this apt!!!!! I was completely furious and disappointed, claim and claim, but no one offered a solution, until I found an agency called Nest4rent, in less than an hour, we spoke, saw and I moved into the apartment! After that experience I always book with them!
I have been in BA on and off for a while now and found your article most interesting, however, you seemed to have missed the best rental agent I have come across and who have given me the best experience since on the last two visits Buenos Aires Stay Apartments I would highly recommend them to travellers. Tim
TIM it’s so obvious that you work for that company…if you want to promote yoursef try to be, at least, a little more creative. Best Lilian
Lili, You totally made me laugh out loud!!
Thanks to this post i have a space to speak about my experience with the company Bairesapartments.com.ar…
We renteds a 2 bedroom apartment, the place was awful, problems with the sealing, the air conditioner, the building, we spended our first week looking for other places because we felt really really bad staying there in that conditions.
Remember a complete month cost around 1500 dollars in a 2 size bedroom… For dirty towels ? dirty sheets ?
I really really really recommend not to stay with them , i found quite few people looking for apartments that had problems with this agency…
Thanks for the space !
When I went to BA i rented on-line an apartment with http://www.yes-apartments.com , they had a great apartmnent in palermo Viejo that was just what I needed and they really ahve the best relationship quality/price
Yes Im agree I have a very good experience with http://www.yes-apartments.com
In my opinion is the best and more serius brooker in Argentina. And the web is very clear and simple
best
Daniel
I’m trying to write a heads-up wherever I can… please DO NOT use welcome2ba. I wish I’ve read this post before I went to BA, having rented an apartment with these guys 3 months prior to my trip. Two days before leaving I was informed that the apartment I have rented was not available and that it was being changed to another one. I replied that I had no problem if the new place was comaprable to what I saw on their page. When we get there they took us to a horrible, old and dirty apartment with no internet available. I complained with the woman who was in charge of giving us the keys, and she said that she was only doing a favor for the agency (she didn’t work for them, she was the appointed driver who picked us up at Ezeiza) and that she can’t do anything.
I asked her to get me in touch with someone from the company and when she finally did, here is the answer i got: “If you don’t like the apartment, then get out of it”. They offered no alternative! This happened on December 25th, 2010. If you want any more details feel free to ask, I will be happy to help anyone avoid the hassle and frustration of dealing with these guys.
Greetings from Colombia
Nicolas,
I am so sorry to hear you had this experience with Welcome2BA, on Christmas no less. My goodness, that is horrible.
It is definitely a leap of trust to rent something without seeing it first. And, it is sad when that trust is broken. I hope you enjoyed your time in BA other than the awful apartment renting experience.
Thank you for sharing so others will know.
Besos,
Mich