SO, you've just bought your DREAM vacation home in Mexico. This is going to be one of the most exciting times in your life. Once all the technical issues like title and payment have been made you are then faced with making this DREAM home a DREAM home.
Most of us have not experienced furnishing an entire house all at once. Many times, our homes in Canada and USA are furnished bit by bit, room by room over the course of years. But these vacation homes in Mexico are also investments, the need to furnish them all at once is imperative. You need to furnish it ASAP so that you can get renters in to start making your investment have that return you want.
Buying a vacation home as an investment is different than buying a home to live in. The emotion needs to be taken out of it and replaced with a practical mind set. With that in mind, here are some questions to ask yourself as you are making decisions.
How much do you want to spend ?
This is a very difficult question, but one that needs to be decided before beginning. Will this property be used by renters? If so, are you willing to spend $1,000's on furnishings that are not durable and easily ruined? Also keep in mind that you will need to insure what you buy. With insurance rates going thru the roof you may not want to carry a large contents package.
A good example of different price ranges are sofas. You can spend anywhere from $1000 - $2000 on beautiful sofas from Sears or Liverpool. Or even better, imported furniture from Italy or Indonesia .... whoa Nelly, it will defiantly be beautiful and expensive. The only problem is that renters are going to be sitting on them with wet bathing suits, eating food on them, drinking margaritas on them....and goodness knows what else. Would you not feel better paying $300 for a sofa that can easily be recovered or $2,000 on one that looks great and will only frustrate and worry you?
85% of renters take better care of your place than you do. It is the 15% you have to be prepared for as well as the accidents that will inevitably happen. Even if you do not rent your home you will discover that every friend and family member you ever had wants to come for a visit. You will do more entertaining that you ever imagined, so durable is still an important question to ask yourself.
Will wood furniture have termites ?
Termites are defiantly a nasty pest to deal with in Mexico. My first villa, 6 years ago, was infested with them. Even though it was new construction the entire kitchen and closets were riddled with hole in less than 2 years. We tried to treat it with everything including diesel, but nothing seemed to get rid of them. To make matters worse I purchased some beautiful but inexpensive rustic furniture from a hut along the road. I found out once I got it home that it too was infested.
The reason the termites were so bad was because the type of wood that was used. It was local wood and it was not kiln dried or treated before it was put into the house. Our wood at Gringo Furniture is a very dense pine which comes from Chile and is kiln dried, bug treated and pest free before it gets to Mexico City. To date, we have had ZERO complaints about termites because we use uninfected wood from another region.
Our furniture is all handmade and has a true Mexican feel. Why pay for imported furniture you can get at home. You are in Mexico, enjoy the character of furniture from this beautiful country and in doing so contribute back to the Mexican economy.
Maybe I should do it myself ? I will go down and shop for everything.
If you decide to do it yourself there are a few considerations.
- Where will I stay until my furniture or at the very least a bed arrives in my villa. This is important as you will need to budget money for a hotel.
Gringo Solution: You will not need to budget for a hotel if you get your furniture delivered and set up before you arrive. Imagine arriving to your new villa with everything you want already there and set up, even the bedding, towels and dishes.
- Do I really want to take a weeks holiday and run around in the hot humid weather buying furniture, getting frustrated and waiting for deliveries? And on that note, do you want to spend money on a plane ticket to work for an entire week?
Gringo Solution: You can now spend your weeks holiday fine tuning your villa, doing the fun stuff. You will have more time for yourself and the beach.
- Can I comfortably walk around with large amounts of money in my pocket because most stores will not accept credit cards
Gringo Solution: Gringo Furniture takes credit cards. You do not have to worry about wiring large amounts of cash.
- How will I get around? You will need to budget for a rental car, and not a small one either, as you will need to pack it full of the stuff you will buy because many stores like Costco, WalMart and Sam's do not deliver.
Gringo Solution: You won't need to rent a car unless you want to. We deliver everything to your door and even offer a set-up service.
- Am I willing to compromise what I want because the store does not have what I like in stock and can not deliver it by the end of the week?
Gringo Solution: You will not have to compromise anything you want or need as you will have picked out exactly what you want ahead of time. No disappointments on stock items as we make everything by hand once you place your order.
- Will I be able to stick to my budget without knowing what I am going to buy or where I am going to buy it from?
Gringo Solution: You will have the ability to stick to your budget by seeing your entire order all at once. You can change or add as your budget allows in the comfort of your own home.
- Can I take extra time from work in the event I do not complete everything in 7 days so that I can get renters in as soon as possible.
Gringo Solution: You will not need to take any extra time to furnish your villa.....you may take extra time to relax though . You will be able to receive renters and make bookings without worry of missing your deadline.
- Can I speak Spanish? Will I be able to convey t exactly what I want and need to the sales people?
Gringo Solution: At Gringo Furniture we speak English. Heck, we are based out of both Canada and Mexico City. We are just like you and we have already gone thru the process of furnishing and are now making it easier for you.,
These are all obstacles you will encounter when trying to do it yourself. We should know, we've done it ourselves. I also left out the part about getting lost and trying to find parking as I shopped non-stop for my first villa. It was from us being overwhelmed that Gringo Furniture was born.
Final Question: Why do I have to pay for delivery?
One question we get asked about is the delivery charge .Many of our customers do not like paying for the delivery charge. We choose to show you this charge so that you can make a decision based on facts. On average, our delivery charge is 15-20% of the total order. To furnish a 3 bedroom villa, on average is $8,000. Delivery on that $8,000 is approximately $1400.
Now take the cost of your plane fare, time away from work, hotel and rental car costs. Then add in the additional cost of going over your budget and possibly missing rental bookings and I guarantee it is higher than $1400. I also believe that your time and frustration that you will experience when doing it yourself is beyond a monetary amount.
Are we competitive in our pricing? ABSOLUTLY! Once shipping and tax charges are added we are competitive with any of the stores you would shop in, possibly a little cheaper. Where you save with Gringo Furniture is not having needless stress and frustration and allowing someone else to do the work for you.
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