Planning Retirement in Mexico

Sounds like a good plan.  I'd go with the short-term dog-friendly rentals while you explore.  While you're exploring, check out the city of Guanajuato.  I've lived here 20 years and still love it.  About to retire, and plan to stay right here!

Thanks for you response! I will be taking a look at Guanajuato when visit SMA.

I would suggest a vacation rental to start and see if you like the area. Long term rentals are more difficult to find and it would be best if you are here when doing so.
So come on down for 2-4 weeks on a vacation rental and then go from there. If you really like it, you work on finding a year long lease and then use this area as your base to explore other areas of Mexico.
Let me know if you would like an orientation tour of the area when you arrive.

Thanks for your response! I have family in Monterrey and spent about 10 days in Ajijic last July with my daugther. I was very happy with what I saw and learned. On that trip, I visited Saltilo and I have visited Mexico City and Cuernavaca.
I am really tired of the heat and humidity here in Florida so the weather is an important consideration. I have been looking over websites with short term rentals and concur with you assessment. I might see I can find one that I can use as a base for a month or two.

Dave Cannon wrote:

Hi, I am in the final stages of planning my relocation from Florida and retirement to Mexico. I have family in Monterrey but plan to start the adventure in Lakeside. I have a dog and my personal items exceed what I can transport in my small car so I want to tow a small enclosed trailer. I will enter on a temporary residency visa and plan to converter to permenate residency in a year or two.
I am looking for coments or suggestion on my current plan. It is below:
-Get TIPs for both the car and trailer online (180 day)
-Have TIPs extended match my temporay residency once I am in country
-Open accounts with Scotiabank for easy access to my funds
-Rent for 6-12 months while I explore other locations for permente retirement
I can't decide weather I should make a trip to Lakeside to find a longterm rental or should I just move and stay in a vacation rental that allows pets while while looking for a longterm rental.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.

One detail you have wrong is the 180 day TIP. You will have a 6 month preappoved Residente Temporal visa in your passport from the Mx. Consulate. Therefore you can not legally appy for a 180 day TIP online as you need to go to the Mexican Immigration [INM] website to apply for a 180 day tourist FMM card before you can complete the TIP application. You cannot have a tourist card in your situation.

You will need to enter Mexico, show them your 6 month visa in your passport and have them stamp it and ask for a 30 day FMM card with the "canje" section filled out - it is free and your local INM office needs this and have your 6 month visa stamp or they will send you back to the border to get it done correctly. Then you go to get your TIP which will match your legal stay on the FMM card which is 30 days. After you have your actual Residente Temporal visa/card in hand you send a letter to ADUANA [ Mexican Customs] your legal stay has changed from 30 days to 1 year to retain the deposit you paid at the border. After 1 year you can renew the RT card for 1, 2 or 3 years and notify ADUANA your legal stay now is 3 years more. If you don´t notify ADUANA your TIP is still legal as long as your legal stay in Mexico but you forfeit your deposit. After 4 years you return the vehicle to the border and have Banjercito [where you got the TIP from]  remove the TIP and give you a receipt. You will need the original paperwork not copies. Keep that receipt. If you show up at your local INM office with a 180 tourist card you are invalidated and have to start all over again in the US at a Mx. consulate.

alleycat,
Thanks for your input! I was under the impression that I could get the TIP online before I completed the Residente Temporal process at the Consulate using my US Passport, then have it converted when I visited the INM with my stamped passport. I am concerned that a TIP issued at the boarder will attach the trailer and car. I'd like to be able to keep the car in Mexico and return the car. Is this info incorrect?