How I found an Apartment in Mexico City
You might be wondering—how TF did I find an apartment in Mexico City within 3 days of arriving, anyway?
It’s all because of Native Son by Richard Wright. Haha. But really, I was sitting in a cafe in Roma Norte not too far from U-Co when I noticed a tatted girl reading Native Son at a table 3 feet from me.
“That’s a good book,” I blurted out after glancing over her way like 30 times.
“It is! You’ve read it, I assume?”
I soon learned her name was Kristin, she was from Santa Barbara, and she’d just moved to CDMX a few days ago to pursue her Master’s in a cheap spot. Apparently, she’d found a place via a roomies website, and reminded me that there were lots of roomie openings on Facebook, too.
After exchanging numbers (duh) I went home and promptly hopped on FB, perusing the webs for something around Roma that was an acceptable mix of factors: affordable, cute and with roommates that are not psycho. 😂
I spied a light-filled room with a queen-sized bed and hefty closet—listed in Roma Norte, just down the street from where I was staying. The poster’s name was Eduardo.
“Hey, is this still available?” I asked.
“It is! There are actually two rooms available if you want to come check them out?” Eduardo swiftly responded.
My new friend (also from Cali) Jamie had told me she was looking for a room, so I asked her to tag along and check it out the following day. Of course, this was also for safety reasons as I always approach stuff like this with caution (I have major trust issues lol).
We went over the next day and checked out the departamento—it was perfect. Well, perfect for me: it’s right off a main plaza in Roma Norte so close to all the amazing bars, restaurants and clubs. The rooms looked out over a little garden area, so they’re off the street (a godsend in possibly the loudest city ever), and there was a sweet living area, balcony, and good-enough kitchen to boot. I was in.
How much is rent, you ask? A whopping $420-ish USD per month. Not too shabby.
In another little gift from the universe, the timing worked out perfectly. I knew right away I wanted to move in, but was already booked with U-Co unti the 18th. Jamie needed to move somewhere within a few days, and the room that she wanted was occupied til the 15th. So, she moved into my room, and I was going to move in on the 15th, buttttt then I got COVID. Lol. So I had to wait a few days, which is all good.
By the way, people sure do have a lot of names here. 😂
One of my roomies, Baca, goes by “Rodrigo” or “Baca” (which I think is his last name?). I was calling Eduardo, the landlord, Eduardo of course—but when I first met Baca, Baca was calling Eduardo “Jose”, too. When I had Covid, Jamie was texting me about interacting with “Loyo”, the landlord—so I figured that this “Loyo” character must be the owner of the building? But then of course she later tells me that Eduardo, Jose, and Loyo are all the same person—Eduardo. So now I call him Loyo. 😂😂
slowly making it mine
Lucky for me, the room was already furnished, as was everything else in the apartment. I’ve been slowly making it more and more cozy, and more and more Kelsey. I bought a buncha cute plants, and cozy rugs and blankets, and even bought a desk.
Plz note that it’s frickin IMPOSSIBLE to find a standing desk here in Mexico—everything is sold out. I ordered two separate pieces from IKEA trying to build a standing desk, but in typical Mexico fashion, they reached out (5 days late) to tell me they were out of stock.
I finally ordered a little desk off Amazon, which arrived at the speed of light (in Mexico time, about 3 days). The only downside? It was heavy AF, and I live on the third floor, so I just left it sitting in the box downstairs, trying to find the time to ask my roomies to help me carry it up.
Then, I had a little date scheduled for Thursday night with a cutie I met the weekend before… we’ll call him J. We made plans to go to dinner. When J showed up, I ran downstairs to let him in, and we did the traditional Mexican cheek-kiss greeting… and then for some dumb, damsel-in-distress reason I motioned to the box:
“This is mine but it’s suuuuuper heavy and I haven’t brought it up yet,” I said.
Of course, being the sweet guy he is, J was like:
“What?! I got you,” and then, slowly, awkwardly, slung it over his head.
This thing was HEAVY, y’all.
Probably like 50 lbs., for sure.
And it was in a HUGE, super awkward box.
That had to go up 3 flights of stairs. 😬
I was instantly mortified and lead him up, talking about some random bullshit, because I knew this probably took like every ounce of strength in his body to carry this thing up three fucking floors. 😬
When we finally got to the top, he basically panting and I would assume sweating under his leather jacket, and I got us beers STAT. I was cherry-red from embarrassment.
We laughed about it later, lol. He said he had to summon strength from above to get that thing up the stairs. 🤣🤣🤣
the desk lol
Anywho, back to the apartment sitch. I’ve also heard you can literally walk around and look for “For Rent” signs and come up on something dope—it’s just that sometimes in Mexico they ask you for an “aval” - aka a co-signer, so if you’re yet in that position, it could be tough. A lot of places ask for your aval to live in Mexico City, or the state of Mexico, in order to qualify. But you can also sometimes get an aval through 3rd-party companies, or some apartments just ask for a bigger chunk of change up front as the deposit.
Some websites you can browse to look for an apartment:
Of course, feel free to reach out and ask me for advice on neighborhoods and finding a cheapish spot to stay temporarily or longer!
Here are some FB groups for finding roommates in CDMX: