Yesterday we met with a local realtor so she could hand over the keys to a new house that the owner has contracted us to lease as a short-term rental.  It’s really nice – right on the Mopan River in Bullet Tree Falls Village (three miles outside San Ignacio Town).  It’s a 2 bedroom, 2 bath bungalow. What will be nice about it is the owner is willing to rent it on a month-to-month short-term basis, instead of long-term (six months or more).

I can’t tell you how often I get calls for this type of rental, but they are far less common here in the Cayo District, simply because the carrying costs for the owners are more.   You have to keep the utilities in your name, since people coming here for a few months aren’t going to want to pay to put utilities in their name. You will also have to keep the yard maintained, and clean the house in between tenants. Plus, you have your management fees, of course.

Because of this fact, short-term rentals will have a higher rent than a long-term. The reasons are obvious, but many people don’t understand this important factor. If you don’t want to sign a lease committing to a longer term, then the trade off is your rent will be higher. But it will also be all inclusive, so you won’t have to deal with paying utilities, a gardener, etc. 

Let me give you a hypothetical example.  For a simple 2 bedroom, 2 bath furnished home in the San Ignacio area, you could find a rental in the $500-550 USD range. This would not include any utilities or garden services.  Conversely, you could see that same home rent for $750-800 USD month if you were only planning on staying for three months. However, it would be an all-inclusive price. Still a pretty good deal. Keep in mind, as always, that rents depend on amenities, so those prices aren’t set in stone.

After viewing the home, we headed to town so I could drop off a check at one of our advertisers’ office. It’s located upstairs with another business. Both of them were closed (and no, it wasn’t the noon hour), so I called him and asked him if there was anyone else I could leave the check with.  As it turns out, he said I could go to the building behind and drop it with the massage lady – gotta love small town life!

After that, we were famished, so we went to Ko-Ox-Han-Nah’s and had a lamb and swiss sandwich and a beer, which was a good thing, since our next errand was grocery shopping, which I never like to do on an empty stomach.

Do you understand why short-term and long-term rentals have different pricing structures?

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Recently I ran across a recommendation on a Belize forum I belong to for the guy that I hired to drive my school bus and personal belongings from California to Belize one year ago. I immediately replied that no one should use him, as he is unreliable (which is true – his name is Frank Ehman and he tried to rip me off and a friend of a friend I know – I would never refer him to any of my clients).

To which another gentlemen posted about his bad experience with Mr. Ehman as well, to the tune of a $1000 loss. At this point, I replied back to that guy and told much more of my experience with Frank. And then it happened. Some wise acre decided to be cute and say we should just chalk the whole experience up to the “Belize Factor.” As if this kind of thing only happens in Belize. How absurd.

Getting ripped off by unscrupulous business people happens everywhere. To even try to suggest that Belize has the market cornered on these types of occurrences is laughable, frankly, and I told the respondent that.  Of course, this person, in addition to not being able to stand not getting the last word, also was never going to admit her comment was callous and inappropriate, and worse yet, completely undermined the whole purpose of our “going public,” if you will, about Frank Ehman’s shady business dealings.

The reason I hadn’t gone public sooner is because Belize is a small country. If you piss even one person off, it can come back to haunt you, especially someone like me in business. What I haven’t told you is that Ehman is a Canadian expat, not a Belizean (I’ve yet to be ripped off in any kind of business dealings by a Belizean in my two years here).   But this was the second time I had seen him recommended on this forum, and in good conscious, I could not let the idea remain that he was trustworthy enough to hire.

Even after yet one more person chimed in saying they too had been taken by Ehman, the wise acre lady kept at us, bullying and badgering we victims, implying that it was “our fault” for hiring him in the first place because we were trying to save money on shipping. Really? Wow! Frankly, folks, I was stunned by this woman’s insensitivity.

And then it dawned on me, since her argument was so irrational, that perhaps she was a friend of Ehman’s, and was purposely trying to the take the conversation off course in order to “prop him up.”  Whatever her motive, just be aware that when you engage in public forums, these kind of creatures exist.

They thrive on making you feel stupid or naïve.  If you ask a question they feel you should know the answer to; or you make a silly typo; or in my case, you share a personal story to help others that they decide doesn’t warrant any attention, they will swoop in and go out of their way to harass and belittle you. It’s like being welcomed to the cauldron – I swear these people have nothing better to do.

I’m not going to publically announce which forum this is, because I don’t care to promote it or give it any publicity in any way. But if you find yourself in the position of having someone tell you that you should just accept poor business ethics because you live in a foreign country, I hope you too will fight back.  It’s only when we throw our hands up in the air and decide collectively as a group that, “Oh well, that’s just the way it is here in Belize,” that we will continue to let these business predators roam and successfully rip us off!

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Red Roof Property Management is pleased to announce a new Belize House for rent in the Orange Walk area.  The owner of this house happens to work at the Almond Beach Resort, and when he met us there and found out what we did, he took our card and called us a couple of months later. He and his family are really nice! The house is located about five miles outside of Orange Walk town proper, in a village called Yo Creek, on the paved road towards San Antonio Village.  My client took a picture of the house after work, so the only picture he could get for the time being was in the dark – hopefully you can see how cute it is anyway (day time photos coming soon!). The house is completely furnished. The living room has comfy furniture, a ceiling fan, and a big screen TV. The eat-in kitchen is also completely equipped with appliances and stocked with pots, pans, dishes and utensils. There’s also an American style washer an dryer. There are two bedrooms, each with their own A/C unit. And a shared bath with a shower only.  The home has hot water throughout.  The yard is quite big and offers ample parking.  Pets and smokers are welcome. The home is being offered for long-term rental (six months or more) at a monthly rate of $450 USD, which – get this – includes electric, water, cable, and yard maintenance.  You can see more details about it here: http://belizehouserentals.redroofpropertymanagement.com/available-orange-walk-belize-house-for-rent/

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Red Roof Property Management is pleased to announce our newest listing in San Ignacio Town.  It is a very large 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath home located in my old neighborhood. That’s right – for 13 months when I first moved to Cayo, I lived right around the corner from this house.  It was a great neighborhood and being back there made me miss it a little.

The two-story home has a large living room with soaring ceilings (I couldn’t even guess how high).

The kitchen has ample cabinet and counter top space, and there is a utility room right off of it with a half bath and washer and dryer hook ups.

There is also a very large (are you noticing a theme here) dining room/eat-in kitchen area as well.

The main floor is completed by a bedroom that could serve as an office if you so desired.

Heading upstairs….you will be greeted by a landing that overlooks the living room and could be used as a small sitting area.

You will find two bedrooms with ceiling fans and closets.

One of the bedrooms even has its own private balcony.

And of course, the hall bath with a shower/tub combo.  The entire house has hot water through out.

The master suite is huge, and has a ceiling fan, ensuite bath with a shower/tub combo, and a rare find in Belize – a walk-in closet!

Two sides of the upstairs area is surrounded by a verandah with the most incredible views of San Ignacio (even on a cloudy day).

The home is being offered as a  long-term rental (six months or more) for $450 USD/month!!  Here’s more details on the property:

http://belizehouserentals.redroofpropertymanagement.com/available-large-san-ignacio-belize-house-for-rent-unfurnished/

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So last week I announced on my Facebook fan page that Tropic Air, one of two Belize inner-country airlines (Maya Island is the other one), has announced that they will be offering flights from San Ignacio to either of the two Belize City airports (International and Municipal), as well as to San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye.

Frankly, this is long overdue.  San Ignacio has quite literally been the red headed step-child of both Tropic Air and Maya Island for quite a while. It’s amazing to me that the #2 tourist destination in Belize (Ambergris Caye is #1) doesn’t have its own airport to bring people quickly back and forth between the main areas in Belize.

Keep in mind, everywhere else in Belize does: Corozal, Belmopan, Dangriga, Placencia, Punta Gorda, and both the islands, of course.  I think part of the problem was finding an air strip to use, and now they have one at a place called Maya Flats, which is on the Benque Highway heading West towards Guatemala, about five minutes outside of town.

It’s a convenient location because a lot of the bigger hotels are located in that area, and it’s a quick taxi drive back to the town hotels, etc.  Plus, who wants those noisy little planes flying right over town?  I know Red Roof will be recommending this service to all of our vacation rental guests for sure.

Having said all that, I don’t think this will be much of an option for us locals.  First, because of cost.  Most of us that live in the Cayo District are here because of the low cost of living, and these flights are pricey! For instance, let’s just say Nige and I want to take a 3-night get away to San Pedro.  It would cost us  $93 USD per person per leg, or $372 USD!!! Holy crap – that’s almost a month’s rent for us.

Belize City is no better, coming in at $329 USD.  In addition, the flight times aren’t that great if you want to use this service to get you to the International airport to leave the country and go back home. There’s only one departure a day, and it’s at 12:45 p.m., with a 1:20 arrival.  Which means you can’t use this if your flight leaves in the a.m.  And on the return leg, it departs at 11:50 a.m., so you’d really have to leave the States early to make that flight!

Also, back to cost, for Nige and I to drive the 90 minutes to Belize City, whether it is to go to the airport, or park our car and take the ferry to the islands, only costs us $100 bze ($50 USD) in fuel and $100 bze in round trip ferry tickets. Parking is another cost, but we have a guy that lets us park in his gated yard for $20 bze ($10 USD) a day, so we’d have to be gone a loooooooong time for these fares to even make sense. And the flights would only save us about 45 minutes – not that much at all.

In the end, I’m glad they did it, because I think people on vacation don’t mind paying a little extra for the convenience of getting to their final destination quickly and efficiently.  But part of me hopes Tropic Air will come out with some kind of local’s discount to incentivize use to use the service. Probably not, but one can hope J

Would you be inclined to use the new service to San Ignacio? And are you a local or a tourist?

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I wanted to update you about my post from yesterday concerning my BTL problem with logging onto my Belize Bank Online website.  Completely distressed by the whole situation, yesterday I packed up my modem and set out to go visit the customer service department at BTL.

First, however, I made a stop into Belize Bank, so that I could confirm with them that they had not inadvertently changed my access privileges so that I couldn’t log on.  I didn’t really think this was the case, since I was able to log on with a VPN (Virtual Private Network), however, I had no desire to trot on down to BTL, only to be told I needed to take the issue up with my bank.

Belize Bank was great, and the customer service rep had me log on, successfully I might add, right from her computer. OK, now I knew the issue was definitely at BTL’s end.  Unfortunately for me, I arrived with three people in line ahead of me.  The gentleman that was being helped took forever with the service rep.  When he got up to leave, I saw that it was one of the employees of Belize Bank, so we exchanged greetings and he left.

Meanwhile, lucky for me, the other two gals in line were helped quickly, and I was up next. I started by telling Cesario, the rep (who I know well), “I’m not sure if you’ll be able to help me here, or whether you’ll need to send a tech to my house, but…” and as I was mid-sentence describing the issue, he cut me off.

He said, “That’s the same problem the guy that just left from Belize Bank was having. We just spent a half an hour trouble shooting it!”  I didn’t know whether I should laugh or cry. I was just so relieved first of all that it wasn’t just me, and I wasn’t going crazy. I was also relived it wasn’t something kooky with my computer. I also was very glad that I didn’t have to convince BTL this was their issue.

As it turns out, Cesario went on to tell me, only people with the same kind of modem (Axess-tel) as the Belize Bank guy and I have seem to be affected. Bad news – there’s no replacement modems available right now to give out to test whether it’s the modem itself, or whether something in the system was inadvertently changed. So, he said give him the afternoon to work with the main office, and he’d call me to let me know what they find.

I’ve been down this road before, and rarely does any Belize service person call you back when they say they will, so I got his number too and left. Frankly, I quite forgot about it, and come 5:15 p.m. my cell phone rang. Lo and behold, it was Cesario, informing me they had fixed the issue in their main switch, could I please test it. I did and it worked!!! After doing the happy dance for a minute or two, I was so relieved (have I said that word enough?) to have this little drama behind me.

Have you ever had a technical support department pleasantly surprise you with quickly resolving an issue and providing great service?

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So I’m having an exceedingly odd issue right now with my internet provider, BTL, which is driving me crazy!  Starting on Friday, I went to my bank’s website, http://www.belizebank.com, to access my online banking. I pressed the “log on” button, just like I always do, and instead of taking me to the log on page, Chrome is telling me “Google Chrome could not load the web page because    online. belizebank. com  took too long to respond. The website may be down or you may be experiencing issues with your Internet connection. “

Keep in mind, there is no problem with my internet connection. I can access any other website I try to with no issue. I called a friend, and they can log on to their account just fine.  Completely confused and miffed, I’ve tried everything my little pea brain knows to do in a situation like this. I used a different browser.  I cleared the cache, deleted my cookies, reset the modem and computer. No luck! Right now, the only way I can access it is to hide behind a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

Now why on earth, BTL, would I need to disguise that I am in Belize trying to access a Belize bank account online? This makes no sense. Even with the VPN, all I can do is view my account transactions. If I try to perform any functions, like transfer money from one account to another, or pay a bill, the VPN locks up and won’t let me. Grrrrrrrrr!!

So today, I will be going to BTL to find out WTF? It’s bad enough yesterday I had to waste my valuable time going to Central Cable Vision to pay my advertising fee for the month. I certainly don’t have time to run all over town paying my clients water, electric and internet bills that are soon to be due.  I’ll keep you posted how this issue gets resolved. The joys of foreign technology!

We did have an exciting meeting yesterday with some local expat real estate investors. They recently purchased a piece of property on the Macal River in Santa Elena, right near the bridge that takes you into San Ignacio Town.  They will be building six efficiency units there and turning them into rentals.

They wanted to meet with us so we could advise them before they started construction on what we felt the highest and best use of each unit would be, along with design and floor plan tips.  We were happy to do so, since they’ll be hiring us to handle the property when it is complete.  Having more rentals within walking distance to town is sorely needed in this area, and having them be in such a lovely spot on the river is unheard of. So exciting!!

And later that day, we headed out to our newest vacation rental, Avana Villa, and dropped off the official Belize Tourism Board license.  This incredible 4-story home with a pool on 20 acres is now officially open for business.  We have our first guests checking in this Saturday, and are already taking bookings for later this year. It really is quite an amazing house. If you haven’t already checked it out, you can take a look here.

http://belizevacationrentals.redroofpropertymanagement.com/san-ignacio-belize-vacation-rental-avana-villa-castle-in-the-tropics/

What do you do when you have a computer problem you can’t solve?

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Red Roof Property Management is very excited to announce our newest listing in Santa Elena, the sister city of San Ignacio, in the Cayo District of Belize.  The property is completely gated and fenced and has room for the secure parking of one car.

The owners live downstairs with their family and dogs, making it a very safe rental.

The unit is located on the second level, and you will immediately be taken aback by the gorgeous views of the Cayo hills on the large verandah.

Once inside, the bright, vibrant tropical wall colors will greet you in the furnished home. The living room has a ceiling fan, comfortable  seating, and a TV.

The kitchen, which along with the whole house, was recently remodeled and comes equipped with a 6 burner gas stove, oven, full size refrigerator, microwave, white wood cabinets with glass door fronts, tile counters and backsplash, a kitchen table and chairs, as well as a small breakfast bar.

Each bedroom has air conditioning, a ceiling fan, and ample closet space.

The bathroom is very roomy, and has a vanity and a tub/shower combo. There is hot water throughout this stunning home.

The home is being offered for $500 USD, which includes free wifi.  For more details, see here:

http://belizehouserentals.redroofpropertymanagement.com/available-san-ignacio-belize-apartment-for-rent-furnished/

A home this nice will not last long, so if you’re interested, email us at manager@redroofpropertymanagement.com .

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Yesterday we had to go to Belmopan for some errands. While there, we popped into the Scotia Bank to make a deposit to one of our client’s accounts. As a blogger, I’m always “on the job,” so I snapped this photo as we were getting in our car ready to leave the parking lot.

All of the sudden, the security guard from inside the bank came running out, yelling at me, “Hey, hey!!”  I just gave him my dumb look, got in the car, and drove off. He didn’t attempt to come after me or anything, but I half wondered if my camera might be confiscated.

Some months back, I had tried to snap a photo of the horrendously long line in Belize Bank so you guys could see it, and the security guard quickly stopped me then too. I guess they think I’m a bank robber casing the joint. 

After our errands, we were starved, so we headed over to the “new” location for the “old” Wing Stop Restaurant.

We like their set up here much better (near the Atlantic Bank and Garden City area). The old place had a giant wall in front, and you couldn’t even tell what you were walking into, if the place was open or closed, or crowded or not. Here you can immediately assess the situation and sit outside and watch the traffic and pedestrians go by.

At Wing Stop, they have many different flavors of wings.  Unable to pick just one, we opted for an 18-piece order ($22.50 bze or $11.25 usd), and ordered six each of the Garlic Parmesan, Garlic Jalapeño, and my personal favorite, Spicy Mango flavors. We also got a small side of fries for $3 bze ($1.50 usd).

We dug right in, and washed it all back with a beer. While we were eating, a huge rain storm broke out, so we were glad to be in the protection of the outdoor patio.

We still can’t believe we ate the whole thing! So good though!

My only complaint about this place is their bathrooms.  Absolutely disgusting. Management – if you are reading this, you really should be ashamed of yourself for making people on a full stomach walk in and see that! I almost hurled my food back up. 

Do you think the way a restaurant’s bathroom looks can be a sign of the restaurant’s overall cleanliness?

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Friday my day started out pretty nice, with an 11:00 a.m. chiropractic appointment.  I have been a patient of chiropractic since the mid 90’s, when an old whiplash injury I experienced at 18 decided to start flaring up and giving me horrible neck and shoulder pain. Being a slave to the computer in every job or business I’ve ever had hasn’t helped much either.

When I first moved to Belize, I settled in San Pedro on the island of Ambergris Caye.  I was lucky enough to be introduced almost immediately to a resident chiropractor there named David, who simply goes by the name “Doc.”  He charged $50 bze ($25 usd) per visit, and most times my adjustments were right on his front porch, on the beach, overlooking the ocean! How cool is that?

When I moved to San Ignacio in the Cayo District in early 2011, however, I never could find another chiropractor here locally.  Well, my prayers have been answered, and Susan and Randy Barnes moved here a short while ago, and they are Eastern chiropractic practitioners. 

Now, for $75 bze ($37.50 usd), I get four hand adjustments. It’s actually more of a combination of an adjustment, massage, and reflexology, all rolled into one session. By the end of the session, which I’ve had two now and generally last an hour, I feel like a new person.  My plan now is to rotate weekly my adjustments with my massages, because I really love both and think my body needs, and more importantly, deserves both! If you want to contact Susan or Randy, their number is 623-0241 and their email is drsus29@gmail.com.

After that, Nige picked me up and we ran over to Meluchi’s to see Roberto, the manager there and DJ extraordinaire!  He had been the one handling the Cayo Women’s group lunch the day before, and I forgot to bring any cash with me, not realizing they don’t accept debit cards.  Well he knows us pretty well, so he just told me to drop it by when I could. Love that kind of small town trust – which is basically non-existent where I come from.

We had lunch after that at Ceneida’s.  This is our second time there, and I still can’t get over how good their food is and cheap their prices are.  For $9 bze ($4.50 usd) I had grilled whole fish, coconut rice and beans, and a salad. After coming back from Texas and spending $35 USD on breakfast for three, I’m so happy to be back to my low, low prices in Cayo.

Do you make it a habit to pamper yourself and get an adjustment, massage or pedicure every week?

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