Friday, September 13, 2013

International house hunting continues -- the real story

A few weeks ago, I posted about our housing options for our move here to Pana ... we utlimately decided to commit to a place for a month and do a little looking around here on the ground.  Boy are we glad we did!  We had the opportunity to ride around town with our real estate agent and take a look in-person at some of our options ...

The real story on #1 = it was a nice location, but felt removed from the city; the gated community really seemed way too upscale for where we are living; second, the entire place echoed like crazy! It was incredibly loud! I can't even imagine what it would have sounded like with Luke crying.

The real story on #2 = AWFUL location!!!  It is located above a mini-mart at a 24-hour service station, on a triangle shaped lot with the highway leading to Guatemala City on one side and one of Pana's main streets on the other.  (See photo below)  Inside was very spacious - the bedroom easily fit three double beds if you were really wanting to pack people in :)




























Our agent also showed us one more option -- this very lovely studio right across the street from the lake.



























It was very tempting with the great furnishings and location, but we were a little apprehensive about living in a studio with Luke and it was still 10% over our max budget, plus did not include any of the utilities.  Sooo ... the search continued.

After seeing these we did some hunting on our own and came across a location that was HALF of what our housing budget is and the price includes electricity & wifi! Even though it's a studio, we have decided to go for it!  For that price, we'll make it work.  At least for a while. We move on Sunday - pictures to follow (of course!)


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