When it comes to real estate, there are always two choices: should you be renting or should you buy? Wherever you are in the world, whether New York City, Panama, or Ecuador: those two options never change. If you’re planning to start a new life overseas, you’re going to have to think carefully about which of them is going to be best suited to your upcoming overseas adventure.

The general wisdom is that buying is a better investment. When you buy a home, the money that goes towards paying the mortgage is money that you’ll be able to recoup if and when you decide to sell. However, if you’re thinking about emigrating or retiring to a tropics location like Panama or Nicaragua, you may find that renting is the best option, at least in the short term.

Why Should You Rent?

The first six months of any overseas move is a very crucial time. This is the time when you will either settle in to your new home and begin to thrive, or when you decide that it’s just not for you. Because of this, many sources recommend that for the first six months of your overseas move you rent. This gives you a bumper zone to decide:

1. Whether the life in your new country is for you, and,
2. Whether you have picked the right location within that country.

If you rent initially, you have the freedom to decide whether or not you’ve made the right decision with no long-lasting financial implications or responsibilities. If you decide that you want to go back home, or that you want to be in a different type of neighborhood, no problem! You don’t have to worry about selling up, and going through the extra costs of a move: you can just give notice on your lease and make your next move.

In addition to giving you greater flexibility during the first part of your big move, renting can have many other benefits for expats.

• You don’t need to worry about home maintenance. If you own your own home and something goes wrong: you’ll need to start the daunting process of looking for a contractor. If you’re renting, you’ll have a landlord at the end of the phone who will manage everything for you.

• You don’t need to manage the expense of importing furniture or buying new. You can rent a home already furnished, which takes away the trouble and the expense of deciding what to do about furniture.

• You don’t need to consider as many legal aspects. There are far fewer legal considerations to think about when you rent instead of buy. This can be a huge draw if you’re feeling daunted by the amount of paperwork involved in a move overseas.

• You don’t need to find local finance options to get a mortgage. Some of the most popular tropical locations such as Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Uruguay just don’t have local options available for financing. If you don’t have the means to buy a home outright, in some locations renting will be all that’s available.

The Bottom Line

When you’ve owned your own home for most of your life, it can be difficult to come to terms with the idea of renting. But the truth is that it’s often the best option for your move to the tropics: at least at first. Renting a place to live will allow you the flexibility to get used to your new surroundings and decide if the first place you’ve settled is where you want to remain long term.

The reasons to relocate to a haven overseas like Santa Fe, Panama, or Monte Verde, Costa Rica are wide and varied: but most people don’t do it primarily because they want to be a Latin American real estate owner! Remember that starting a new life in the tropics is more about the adventure than the investment opportunity! Why not stop buying, and start living?

If you decide to move forward with the renting process, you won’t need to do it all on your own. Think about using the services of a rental agent who is based in your destination country, and make sure you’ve considered these 14 pointers for renting abroad.