I’ve been collecting these avocado crates for a few months now. Mostly because the pueblo is retail challenged..you can’t buy housewares and without an address, online shopping isn’t an option. Turns out it’s sorta the same as what I used to buy at Container Store. So I have my tees and fraying yoga pull ups in one, dog toys and bowls in another, towels and pillow cases rolled Marie Kondo style in another.
I keep grabbing them out of trash though because I hate to see them go to waste but I was beginning to have a problem. Crate Hoarding in Case. And today I’m washing them off and using them to pack up my things. it’s just when you think you don’t have anything that you realize the 4 duffel bags you showed up with is now 4 duffel bags, 8 crates and 10 dogs. We’re moving. And the Shelter doggos of course are coming with. But it’s just across town. I stopped looking here a while ago, after the gold rush mentality of locals kicking out tenants for contractors and frackers and my landlord of two years alerting me that he’s renting out my bedroom and raising my rent, I decided to look long and hard at options. Queretaro? Ensenada? Tucson? Texas?
I had a lemonade with the Pastor and his wife (my neighbors) last weekend and he said “I can tell you’re in there spinning your wheels. Maybe just stop. God knows what you’re looking for.” The untrendy way to say Put it Out into the Universe. 12 step savvy Let Go and let God. Mostly it just was exhausting. That fixer upper you found in rural Texas for $80k will be gone before you imagine how you’ll pickle the shiplap. No one will answer any of the ads posted on Zillow for rentals and like I discovered in 2019 when I first started this downsizing experiment…it's all a mirage. There may be vacant rentals but they're not renting. Also, no shock here, BlackRock owns Zillow too. So they own the house that they won't release and they own the site that you spend all your time on. Also entry level anything is $1500. Kansas dust bowl studio apartment? $1500. Pretty sketch n'hood in Pensacola one bedroom? $1500.
From there it's $3250 and up. And the biggest scam going, the Zillow application where you can pay $35 and "apply as many times as you want in 30 days" which sounds like a great way to make $35,000,000 a month for nothing. There are likely a couple real landlords and medium developers on there but 90% in my estimation are shell houses. Phone tree, data mining, phoney baloney. And I've been here before. That's why I left the US in the first place.
Okay but surely you can find a "better" place that where you are in Mexico. Yes, I likely could. But there is no Millow here and the best way to get a place is to walk around, live somewhere for a time, ask everyone you meet if they have a cool place or in bigger towns suffer the slow and predictably inane efforts of an "agent". If you've got no time limit and can wait 4 days for a response on a house that may "aceptan mascotas" (pets) but like one chihuahua…that's the way to go. But out of town shopping is a fool's errand. Everyone has a smart phone but they still take photos of a trash can and a toilet in a dimly lit room. Fancy Pueblo Magicos have fancy photogs and agents but they may not be as eager about you as you are about them. Also only Canadian Snowbirds ask if this unit will be available in November 2025?
I'm not that demographic. I'm regular person looking for a walking community in a non touristy area…not that I mind being in towns with better gringo services despite having to live around rich part time boomers, it's mostly fine… just a little on the HOA at your mom's condo vibe, but there's nothing available. And it's spendy. And I have zero need to live in jungle heat to be near the ocean. I've been in here for two years and I'm 6 blocks from the ocean and she's lovely but also, we all have to live our lives. I'm not spending THAT much time breathing in the salt air. Some days I get overwhelmed with work, emails, dog poo scooping, composting, shopping for dinner, walking 10 dogs in sets of 2 like we're getting on an ark because I used to do 4 but I'm why? The freelance shuffle of too much work one week, shaking the trees for a new client after one decides they can DIY their marketing and social media, then two pop up in that place like mushrooms and need websites built STAT and Dusty needs ear drops and Pedro stepped on a broken bottle chasing the delivery guy motorcycle.
I don't really always have it in me to "go watch the sunset" on a daily. Or a weekly even. So I'm not going to live somewhere that I have to pay for that. Can we all just admit that a view is amazing but after dark, we're all on our screens or cooking dinner or mopping? I've had a few years to consider what makes a home a home and where I've been most comfortable and safe feeling. And not once have I determined that it was a lovely view from the living room. I'm okay if I have some tree branches in my line of sight and windows that open with cross ventilation. And in Mexico you should be able to find something for under $400/mo. Locals can pay $100/mo and they'll have a shitty apartment in the city, on the beach, in the mountains and more. Americans get taken advanantage of all the time in real estate. We need our space and toilet seats and good lighting and shit. Oh and closets and counters and a shelf in the bathroom. But you can put all that stuff in your $300/mo casa and live just fine.
I was convinced I'd not move and live in this town. All of my friends want me to leave and 'come back home" and that's funny to me. I don't have a home and have been priced out of my own country after a lifetime of real estate investing, hard work, business ownership, wise conservative investments, clean living and no kids. So unless one of my friends wants to loan me their grandpappy's cabin on 5 acres of dog friendly land in Tennessee, I'm likely not coming over the border.
So I turned off the computer, threw the cards up in the air and went about my days. Friday afternoon the beer store guy who is also my bank, dog food broker, snack land and now real estate agent leaned out the window, HEY! are you still looking for a house?
Not really, I said. But whatcha got. Que tiene.
It's a property of the family, his mom died last year and I remember seeing this house on a block where I walk the dogs. It had a tiny front patio and felt too close to the road and it had a big trash bin out front and it was full of fish scrap stink and I was like, GROSS that house? But someone said, look inside it's nice and has a really big back yard with trees and stuff. Good for the dogs, he said.
Music to my ears of course because in the US it's "$500 non refundable fee PER PET with a limit on quantity and breed" and "pet rent" and go fuck yourself. So it's overgrown and messy and the guy moved out and left all his crap like people sorta do here but it's definitely a cute useable home with no shared walls, 2 legit big bedrooms, windows that open and a front and back door with cross ventilation. Completely walled and gated and full of overgrown lime and palms in the back. A covered workspace area and no creepy neighbors. Behind the fruit tienda and not on a cut through street with traffic to cover my life in dust.
And get this. It's furnished (kinda) and there’s a wood cabinet thing and it has a sofa and a loveseat. I haven't sat down on anything but a kid's desk chair that's broken or a plastic beer chair or paint bucket for 2 years. Truth. Mexico is not known for comfy seating, not sure why. You can get a 90inch flat screen and a sofa the size of a Buick but "home office" furniture isn't a thing. And good for them.
At this point I've gone so long without stuff I'll sit on that sofa with a piece of plywood and type type type like a fat little pigeon (extra points if you know what movie that's from). And it's CHEAPER than where I'm living. I tried to act cool about it, and slept on it which is my rule about everything but I went and paid him for one month yesterday. Just transferred the money into his account and went back home. There's some kid who works at the beer store in there "painting" priming and he said it will be ready in 4 days. I can go whenever, which is also great. I know it's because an empty house can get the AC compressor stolen off the roof, it's not because he's being nice. He's being a little nice, but they want me and my band of barkers over there keeping an eye on things.
The road is quiet, there's tacos on the opposite corner, I can still walk to the tienda and I'm 4 blocks to the shore instead of 6. And it FEELS better over there. Sure the kitchen doesn't have counters and there's no washer so I have to go to the used fridge store guy and buy one for $275 but that's about the rent payment so I'm happy to do so.
He came to me with the house, I don’t have to beg (after 25 years of home ownership and renovation, I’m a tidy lady who can fix anything who takes good care of home and garden. It’s insulting to have to fill out a 40 page application to rent some crappy apartment I don’t even like. ) They know I’m the dog guardian and rescue lady, and they know I pay bills because I’ve been over here for 2 years. So I feel like I’ve been poached. I like it.
It’s been a long time since I’ve imagined unpacking a set of curtains that made it out of the car wreck and hanging twinkle lights and having a place for my plants and I can have the dogs roam the scrap free garden/sand box and there are double gates separating the front and back yards. I know the neighborhood already and the idea of scratching my way back into a US rental home market to find that $8000 worth of deposits later I have a rotten neighbor selling crank and fighting with their boyfriend every weekend? Hard pass, I’m going to wait it out with the devil I know.
I stopped looking and I found it. Back to packing my avocado crates
This is so awesome! The world works in mysterious ways, that's for sure.
I related so much to nearly everything you said about trying to live even a mediocre life in America. I Canadian and we have the same problem up here. NOTHING is affordable anymore, especially for single income people with dogs.
I'm happy for you that this house found you!