# Seeking Relocation Consulting Referral



## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

We are considering moving to Mexico and would like to rent for 6 months to a year in Puerto Vallarta and/or Merida, since these are the two cities that most fit our our needs.

We are looking for someone who is reliable, knowledgeable, and offers consulting services that includes showing us around the different areas, consulting on neighbourhoods, and providing assistance with moving.

We have contacted some realtors; however, they seem to be more focused on selling us property. We do not want to buy anywhere for some time and are content renting until we are sure on the location.

If you can recommend someone or a company in either city, we would greatly appreciate it.

JJ


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

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Jae_BC said:



We are considering moving to Mexico and would like to rent for 6 months to a year in Puerto Vallarta and/or Merida, since these are the two cities that most fit our our needs.

We are looking for someone who is reliable, knowledgeable, and offers consulting services that includes showing us around the different areas, consulting on neighbourhoods, and providing assistance with moving.

We have contacted some realtors; however, they seem to be more focused on selling us property. We do not want to buy anywhere for some time and are content renting until we are sure on the location.

If you can recommend someone or a company in either city, we would greatly appreciate it.

JJ

Click to expand...

_
Puerto Vallarta or Mérida. Two very different places on very different coasts but I presume you know that. I would not trust any opportunist who agreed to show you those places and I promise you anyone who knows Puerto Vallarta probably know nothing about Mérida - NOTHING! I am speaking of people with some moral compass not real estate agents who. in Mexico, are generally to be avoided like the plague. 

This is something you must do on your own or you will be screwed to the wall by some charlatan taking you for a big ride and with the goal of emptying your pockets.

If you feel you need a consultant to decide where, among two very different urban areas in disparate regions, you wish to move, then Mexico is not for you. Get your act together and strike out on your own. I know both of these cities quite well and their environs and if, in the long run, you like one, you will not like the other. If you continue this searcch for guidance, someone down the line will empty your pockets and give you really bad advice.

If I had to choose between Puerto Vallarta and Mérida, I would choose Isla Holbox. Maybe the Bays at Huatulco.


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## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

Hound Dog said:


> Puerto Vallarta or Mérida. Two very different places on very different coasts but I presume you know that. I would not trust any opportunist who agreed to show you those places and I promise you anyone who knows Puerto Vallarta probably know nothing about Mérida - NOTHING! I am speaking of people with some moral compass not real estate agents who. in Mexico, are generally to be avoided like the plague.
> 
> This is something you must do on your own or you will be screwed to the wall by some charlatan taking you for a big ride and with the goal of emptying your pockets.
> 
> ...




I did not mean to infer that I was looking for one person for both areas. As I stated, we have our reasons for each city. I am well aware of the dishonest ones, which is exactly why Im seeking a referral. If anyone else can provide a referral, I would appreciate it.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Jae_BC;1207501]I did not mean to infer that I was looking for one person for both areas. As I stated, we have our reasons for each city. I am well aware of the dishonest ones, which is exactly why Im seeking a referral. If anyone else can provide a referral, I would appreciate it.[/QUOTE]_

Any referral will take you to the cleaners. You must do your own homework. Go to Puerto Vallarta and Mérida and walk the streets. Learn the towns. There are lots of people here who will steal your shorts without removing your pants. If that is what you are seeking, you will not find it hard to engage them. Just keep requesting help from strangers.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

By the way, Jae BC,I didn´t mean to sound rude. I appreciate what you are trying to accomplish and just wanted to warn you of the opportunists out there who might mislead you.

I know both of these cities fairly well but especially Mérida where we considred moving a few years ago and still have friends to this day. I have no financial goal in mind but if you have some questions about Merida that I might be able to addess I would be happy to do what I can to help and totally free of charge. I should say that, after some time spent looking at Mérida as a place to live, we rejected that notion . for us, at least.

Good luck in your search.


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## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

Thank you for your concern hounddog. I understand that we all have different circumstances that determines our criteria, so what may be right or wrong for you may not be for me. So, out of curiosity, what made you cross Merida off your list? Your other 2 suggestions will not work for us for several reasons. One being we need to be near an international airport.


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## GARYJ65 (Feb 9, 2013)

Jae_BC said:


> Thank you for your concern hounddog. I understand that we all have different circumstances that determines our criteria, so what may be right or wrong for you may not be for me. So, out of curiosity, what made you cross Merida off your list? Your other 2 suggestions will not work for us for several reasons. One being we need to be near an international airport.


Come to Queretaro then!


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## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

GARYJ65 said:


> Come to Queretaro then!


Thanks for the suggestion Gary, but Queretaro is too far inland. We want to be near the water for diving, snorkelling, etc.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

[_QUOTE=Jae_BC;1207563]Thank you for your concern hounddog. I understand that we all have different circumstances that determines our criteria, so what may be right or wrong for you may not be for me. So, out of curiosity, what made you cross Merida off your list? Your other 2 suggestions will not work for us for several reasons. One being we need to be near an international airport.[/QUOTE]_

Actually, we really like Merida and we visit it often. We simply could not tolerate the extreme heat and humidity for a permanent residence but for those who like that sort of climate and want to be near two attractive seas, it´s a great town.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

We have friends who loved diving and snorkling so they bought a condo on the beach in Akumal. After some years there they decided that there was more to life than diving and snorkling, that beach town are transient communities, your neighbors keep moving, stay a few days to a few weeks and a new batch ready to party and raise hell move in...they moved to Merida bought an old colonial remodellied it into a fabulous house and live thee for ever happy, go to the beach once in a great while..
If you can take the nasty heat and humidity, Merida is a very nice town.


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## AlanMexicali (Jun 1, 2011)

citlali said:


> We have friends who loved diving and snorkling so they bought a condo on the beach in Akumal. After some years there they decided that there was more to life than diving and snorkling, that beach town are transient communities, your neighbors keep moving, stay a few days to a few weeks and a new batch ready to party and raise hell move in...they moved to Merida bought an old colonial remodellied it into a fabulous house and live thee for ever happy, go to the beach once in a great while..
> If you can take the nasty heat and humidity, Merida is a very nice town.


I my personal experience when I immigrated from Canada to San Diego it took about 3 years before I stopped going to the beach regularly in summer. I only went when visitors came after that.

I drive by the beach and eat at beach restaurants on occasion. Many San Diegans don´t go to the beach but the many nice parks and the parks overlooking the beach on the grass to picnic.

Now we go to the beach by car and stay in a resort in Mexico which is reasonable to do pricewise and hang around the meandering pool and dip in the ocean every day for 20 or 30 minutes. We get large discounts from the ISSSTE travel agency. It doesn´t cost more than $1,000.00 pesos per night for 2 with the breakfast buffet at most resort hotels.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

citlali said:


> We have friends who loved diving and snorkling so they bought a condo on the beach in Akumal. After some years there they decided that there was more to life than diving and snorkling, that beach town are transient communities, your neighbors keep moving, stay a few days to a few weeks and a new batch ready to party and raise hell move in...they moved to Merida bought an old colonial remodellied it into a fabulous house and live thee for ever happy, go to the beach once in a great while..
> If you can take the nasty heat and humidity, Merida is a very nice town.


Good insight. When we move, we toss away our tourist garb and become residents. We can dive and snorkel as a tourist, but as a resident we have other things to do. I live at 1,400 m. and the weather is great. When I start to yearn for beach town living, I go down to Veracruz to bake and sweat then return.


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## maesonna (Jun 10, 2008)

I visited Mérida for the first time a couple months ago. It would be a beautiful place to live if you could stand the heat. I recommend taking the tour of colonial house makeovers that is run out of the English Library most Tuesdays. I enjoyed the tour very much, and it would also be a useful starting point for someone who is considering moving to Mérida (which I’m not). Do a search for “merida english library house and garden tours” and you will find it on the Merida English Library website.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

joaquinx said:


> Good insight. When we move, we toss away our tourist garb and become residents. We can dive and snorkel as a tourist, but as a resident we have other things to do. I live at 1,400 m. and the weather is great. When I start to yearn for beach town living, I go down to Veracruz to bake and sweat then return.


I agree. When I was thinking about where to live in Mexico, I considered a beach town. I thought it might be a place where my kids would enjoy visiting. Then I realized that, at most my kids might visit for a few days or a week once a year. But I was going to have to live there the rest of the year. So, instead I picked a place where I want to live. When my kids visit, they rent a place near the coast.


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## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

citlali said:


> We have friends who loved diving and snorkling so they bought a condo on the beach in Akumal. After some years there they decided that there was more to life than diving and snorkling, that beach town are transient communities, your neighbors keep moving, stay a few days to a few weeks and a new batch ready to party and raise hell move in...they moved to Merida bought an old colonial remodellied it into a fabulous house and live thee for ever happy, go to the beach once in a great while..
> If you can take the nasty heat and humidity, Merida is a very nice town.


I agree. Living in a beach town will bore me to death as we found out in Puerto Viejo, CR. This is another reason we want to be near a city like Merida or Puerto Vallarta. I actually prefer the geographical characteristics of Puerto Vallarta. Thanks for your input.


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## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

TundraGreen said:


> I agree. When I was thinking about where to live in Mexico, I considered a beach town. I thought it might be a place where my kids would enjoy visiting. Then I realized that, at most my kids might visit for a few days or a week once a year. But I was going to have to live there the rest of the year. So, instead I picked a place where I want to live. When my kids visit, they rent a place near the coast.


I hear what you're saying. Our kids, when they visit, I think would enjoy the city more than the beach. However, coming from the west coast and living near the ocean our whole lives, I can't imagine not having the ocean at my doorstep. Our dogs would also miss the long daily strolls on the beach. At the same time, I need more culture, activities, and shopping than a beach town can offer. A larger centre near the water seems to be our best option. Plus we need to be near an international airport as one of us will be commuting to work twice a month. Thanks for your input.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

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Jae_BC said:



I hear what you're saying. Our kids, when they visit, I think would enjoy the city more than the beach. However, coming from the west coast and living near the ocean our whole lives, I can't imagine not having the ocean at my doorstep. Our dogs would also miss the long daily strolls on the beach. At the same time, I need more culture, activities, and shopping than a beach town can offer. A larger centre near the water seems to be our best option. Plus we need to be near an international airport as one of us will be commuting to work twice a month. Thanks for your input.

Click to expand...

_Well, Jae_BC:

Sounds to me like you are looking to settle on Lake Chapala. Fabulous, deserted, endless beaches where I walk my five dogs every day watching them cavort about on the sand and chasing birds and each other along the beach and into the water with absolute abandon as there are rarely other strollers on the beach where we live in West Ajijic so no need normally for leashes as we walk. Very close to Guadalajara´s airport with excellent domestic and international flights. Lots of cultural activities, restaurants and other diversions as you wish. Probably some of the most varied international grocery outlets in Mexico. 45 minutes to Guadajalara - Mexico,s second largest city - a beautiful city with a great climate and with the finest urban amenities. Great climate at the lake at 5,000 feet and almost endless sunshine in a place where it almost always rains only at night and even then for only a few months in the summer. Maybe three hours to the nearest Pacific Ocean Beaches and a huge variaety of other beach towns within five hours more or less. Maybe a two hour flight to the Gulf or the Caribbean.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

Commuting by air get old pretty quickly especially when you have connections. I would look at the schedules of the airlines going out of both city and would pick the town that has direct flights..Both cities are nice, very different but nice so if I had to go back to Canada twice a month I would pick the ones that has the best flight to the location I have to go to..


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## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

citlali said:


> Commuting by air get old pretty quickly especially when you have connections. I would look at the schedules of the airlines going out of both city and would pick the town that has direct flights..Both cities are nice, very different but nice so if I had to go back to Canada twice a month I would pick the ones that has the best flight to the location I have to go to..


Way ahead of you Citlali. There are nonstop flights to Puerto Vallarta, seasonal to Merida. After years of commuting home from the Middle East and Russia, with added hours of trains and buses, a measly few hours to Mexico and maybe one connection will be a piece of cake.


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

well good for you and better you than me, I hate flying on long flights, did it for plenty of years until I could not stand it anylonger.
You mention dogs walking on the beach and Puerto Vallarta with its beaches would be a better place to walk dogs than Merida. I would hate to have to walk the dogs in Merida, just too much cement around but you could always get a place with a large yard.


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## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

citlali said:


> well good for you and better you than me, I hate flying on long flights, did it for plenty of years until I could not stand it anylonger.
> You mention dogs walking on the beach and Puerto Vallarta with its beaches would be a better place to walk dogs than Merida. I would hate to have to walk the dogs in Merida, just too much cement around but you could always get a place with a large yard.


Yes I noticed that too about the beaches in the Progresso area. Apparently they are starting the ferry again from Florida in 2014. I'm concerned about the added traffic that will cause. What do you think?


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## Jae_BC (Jun 16, 2013)

Hound Dog said:


> Well, Jae_BC:
> 
> Sounds to me like you are looking to settle on Lake Chapala. Fabulous, deserted, endless beaches where I walk my five dogs every day watching them cavort about on the sand and chasing birds and each other along the beach and into the water with absolute abandon as there are rarely other strollers on the beach where we live in West Ajijic so no need normally for leashes as we walk. Very close to Guadalajara´s airport with excellent domestic and international flights. Lots of cultural activities, restaurants and other diversions as you wish. Probably some of the most varied international grocery outlets in Mexico. 45 minutes to Guadajalara - Mexico,s second largest city - a beautiful city with a great climate and with the finest urban amenities. Great climate at the lake at 5,000 feet and almost endless sunshine in a place where it almost always rains only at night and even then for only a few months in the summer. Maybe three hours to the nearest Pacific Ocean Beaches and a huge variaety of other beach towns within five hours more or less. Maybe a two hour flight to the Gulf or the Caribbean.



I can honestly say I never considered the Lake Chapala region nor have I been there. Your description is intriguing though. I read that you can't swim in the lake though, is this true?


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## citlali (Mar 4, 2013)

I would not count on the ferry to be operating. The ferry had a lot of false starts so I hope they start but I would not hold my breath and even if it starts who knows how long it will last. 
The beaches around Progresso are very nice but it is the Gulf not the open sea, you can walk quite a ways before you get into deep water. 
I like the Gulf side because it is more funky I have a feeling it would be really quiet off season and I would need to take trips to Merida on a regular basis.


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