Our House: Finding an Apartment in Argentina

Prior to my departure, everybody kept asking me whether I had secured a homestay, apartment, dormitory, etc in Tucumán. Typically I would respond with a shrug and tell them I would figure it out once I arrived. In retrospect, I must have come off as downright cavalier about what is arguably the biggest concern for people traveling abroad. Still, between helping international students find housing in Austin and hopping around the city finding adequate housing for myself, I’ve just seen way many too many people get burned trying to arrange their housing prematurely. On top of being exceedingly difficult (can you imagine trying to do lease paperwork online?!), it isn’t a particularly reliable method. There are simply too many variables: how safe is the area, how far is it from the center/work/nearest grocery store/bus stop, what bills and utilities are included, what is the actual condition of the apartment etc. I would gladly pay for a week at a hotel and be homeless for a few days over finding myself stuck in a dodgy place and having to deal with that for 8 months. Thankfully, I didn’t have to pay for a week at a hotel… I didn’t actually have to pay for anything. Here’s how I did it:

1. Talk to people – I remember trying to explain Craigslist to some locals, and they just sort of chuckled. “No existe.” It quickly became evident that my traditional methods of house-hunting weren’t going to fly. So I asked them how people in Argentina find housing. Their reply: “Contactos.” My primary contactos were a group of Couchsurfers and students who told me to check out the bulletin boards at the various facultades sprinkled around the city. Sure enough, on our first try, we hit the mother lode of ads for roommates, tenants, boarders, and everything in between. Later on when I had a list of prospective locations, they gave me valuable, honest feedback on which ones were a deal/rip-off, what was a good/dodgy area, etc. You can’t get that type of service from a realtor.
2. Maps, Maps, Maps - I know I sound like a Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs song, but I cannot stress the need for a good, detailed city map. Usually the tourist office or information center should be able to provide you with one. Use it, mark all over it, and treasure it. Google Maps is a useful tool, but sometimes it’s just helpful to get a panoramic view. For example, at first glance, Tucumán is laid out in a very intuitive way: a gridlike system of numbered one-way streets. Its only idiosyncrasy (and it’s a big one) is that at various intersections throughout the city, the streets change names. Somebody who wasn’t aware of that minor detail could have wasted a lot of time walking in circles.
3. Lace up your walking shoes –I find that if I’m riding as a passenger on a bus or a car, it’s very easy to zone out on your location. On foot, you have to take a much more active role in where you’re going. Distances have always been hard for me to gauge abstractly. Walking provides a concrete way to conceptualize the time it takes to get from Point A to Point B. You get a better view of the street signs and numbers, which in turn helps you familiarize yourself with various landmarks and places. Additionally, when you’re on foot, you can start, stop, rest, eat, and drink at your leisure. As we were traversing the city, whenever we were tired or hungry we would pop into the nearest café or heladeria as needed. While seemingly trivial, this step was crucial in preventing burn-out. Finally, there is the practical house-hunting aspect. When we were on foot, we passed by several residences with “For Lease” signs. By keeping half an eye out, you’ll find a lot more prospects.
4. Know where you are- Arguably, one of the most frustrating things about house hunting is communication. There is nothing worse than finding the place of your dreams, and then having to wait for a response on its availability, price, etc. That is one of the shortfalls with e-mail and doing things online. As mentioned above, Argentines don’t put as much stock into doing things online. Every ad and flyer we found only gave phone numbers. This just became a matter of being strategic and knowing about the culture. We figured that most people would be at work or school during regular business hours. For this reason, we made all of our phone calls during the siesta hours, when we assumed everybody would be at home. In the period of 30 minutes, we made over 10 cold calls, and I would venture to guess about 90% of them answered. We were able to make appointments to visit the places within the next day. I was shocked – I don’t think that type of return would ever happen in the States.
   
5. Couchsurfing – I know I’ve talked it up a lot in the past couple of posts, but Couchsurfing has really been my saving grace during my stay here. The entire first week, I crashed with one of Tucumán’s most active members. In addition to making me feel right at home (pretty much, I freely came and went at my leisure, including one day in which I was completely bed-ridden ), she introduced me to her friends, family, and workplace.
   
   On top of that, it was through Couchsurfing that I actually landed in my current apartment. A few weeks before leaving, I posted a brief introduction on the message board and solicited any leads on housing. One of the responses was from a gentleman whose elderly mother rents office space. A room had recently become available, and for safety/security reasons, they thought it might be worthwhile to rent to a student as opposed to a business. Long story short, we visited the place, fell in love with it, and now we live in “The Office” (more to come soon).

I don’t make any illusions about my method being stress-free or surefire, because it was still a lot of work, and I was pretty beat-up by the end of the week. Still, I talk to some of my fellow Fulbrighters who have bounced around from hostels to failed homestays and had to deal with no gas, hot water, or electricity. All things considered, it’s kind of embarrassing how easy the transition was for me. Interestingly enough, I found that an old-school approach was the most effective: tapping all the resources and contacts you have readily available (using a little creativity and string-pulling as needed), calling on phones (payphones and landlines, no less!), pretty much just getting on the street and talking to people. I guess sometimes retro is the best way to go. At the very least, it’s true for 80’s music!
Our house it has a crowd There's always something happening And it's usually quite loud