REQUEST/INQUIRY: Palmas Del Mar Rental Unit

Hi Everyone -

Longtime lurker, first time poster here.  My Act 22 acceptance/certification came through from PRIDCO last week, so I am in the process of moving myself down to Puerto Rico (from the Southeast U.S.).  I am hoping to find a rental unit in the Palmas Del Mar subdivision to hang my hat once I get down there.  Based on my review of the various Palmas Del Mar discussions on this forum, it sounds like there are a handful of folks on this forum that live in the community, so I wanted to throw out a general inquiry and see if anyone has (or knows of someone that has) an available unit in Palmas Del Mar that they might be looking to rent to a responsible, single, young professional (i.e., someone that is clean and will take good care of your place).

Of course, I have perused Classificados, Airbnb, etc. and I know there are many units listed for sale and rent on those sites - however, I wanted to float this email first just to see if anyone here by chance knew of someone directly that might be looking to rent their place. 

What am I looking for? 

I am very flexible - I live alone, so a small 1-bedroom or studio would be just fine (bigger is fine too, if the price point works).  I am hoping to move down as soon as the power is restored to the area (whenever that may be!).  Ideally, since I am new to the island, I would like to rent a place in Palmas Del Mar for a few weeks or months before I lock into a long-term lease, but this is all open to discussion.


So . . . if any of the Palmas Del Mar folks on this forum happen to know of any of their neighbors looking to rent a place out in the community, please shoot me a message or email.  Like I said, I will be checking the usual real estate sites and trying to run down the listing realtors (which is obviously tough right now, for obvious reasons), but I wanted to post this message first, just in case someone here knows of something available off hand.

Thank you all for the wealth of info that you have put onto this forum!  It has been a huge help to me in my preparations.  Looking forward to hopefully meeting some of you when I finally get down there in a few weeks (fingers crossed)!

Palmas has no communication at this time. I sugest you drive there if you find gas and visit the local Palmas Realtor.

We have heard only from a couple of the Palmas member via third hand reports.

Yeah - that's pretty much my plan if power isn't restored there in the next few weeks.  I am still stateside, so I'm pretty much in a holding pattern right now, which is fine.  But if the power is still out in the Palmas Del Mar area in a few weeks, my plan is just to head down there and pound the pavement until I find a place (will probably just book a hotel in San Juan for a week or so after my arrival, to give me time to line something up in Palmas Del Mar).  It looks like there are plenty of places available in the community - it's just a matter of getting something nailed down with all of the chaos going on there right now.  I hope the folks in the area are hanging in there - it sounds absolutely terrible from what I am seeing on the news here stateside.

Welcome!  We own a place in Palmas.  Still waiting to hear about the recent damages to our villa caused by Hurricane Maria .  Ours is just a short term rental but I can refer you to our property manager who might have some additional long term rentals available.  She is amazing!  I'll PM you her info.

Awesome - thanks, Taryna.  I will definitely reach out to her, and we can hopefully connect once things get back up and running down there.  Thanks again - this is exactly what I needed.

CatsMeow83, wondering if you are saying you received your approval last week or if you picked up your decree last week?  I have been wondering if the office is open, as I need to pick up my decree in the next two weeks.  Surprised to hear they are doing business.

Im a Palmas Del mar Resident, I can tell you power will be a problem for a long while, worse- internet access (if you are like most of us act 20 and 22's you are internet dependent) will be the larger problem as the fiber line below the sea was severed. I would not recommend coming down during the month of October, perhaps November will look a little more optimistic. The structures of Palmas faired well (comparatively) lots of door, window, roof and water damage but most were not heavily damaged structures. Surrounding us however is like Armageddon, Yabacoa and Humacao are devastated. Puerto Rico needs you and if you have fallen in love with Puerto Rico and the Puerto Ricans as we have, you will come, but now is not the best time to move. You will find shipping, supplies and goods hard or impossible to set up house right now.

Vega - I just received the final "decree approved" notice via email a couple weeks ago, which gave me the green light to go ahead and pay the final $5,000 fee (which I did).  I haven't heard anything further, which is not surprising since I have assumed that non-essential government offices were either closed, or not functioning in the normal course.  All of that said, I need to move down before Dec. 31, so I am crossing my fingers that things improve down there a little quicker than people are thinking.

SSabrina - thanks for the info. and update.  That is very helpful, because I don't have much to go on right now.  I will definitely wait until November at this point.  If you have any further updates as things progress down there, please pass them along.  I will owe you big time.  As you say, the Internet is the key lifeline, so there is no way I can move down until that situation is addressed.  Are you still down there, or did you manage to get off the island before the storm?

I was there for the storm, we did basic clean up, board up, hired a team to repair and then we came to Texas. I have a small child and family members that couldn't handle staying any longer and with the water, gasoline and diesel situation it was getting pretty dicey. We are working now to get employees & families out for their safety and our business continuity.  We have sat phones with our business partners on the ground in SJ and in Palmas so we are having daily contact. Lots of logistics and things we will do differently when we get back!  Palmas is like a small town, lots of interaction with community and lots of support. You will be so so happy when you finally get to move, you couldn't choose a better place!

I am happy to connect you to some people with rental units as well once they have their feet under them.