Making plans

Do you speak Spanish?  While it's possible to survive in Colombia with no Spanish, it's not recommended, and without speaking at least a bit of Spanish you open yourself up to all kinds of problems.

LODGING For one thing - yes, you can get a "good" place for $750 USD in Medellín.  That's over $2.2 million COP at today's exchange rate and is much more than you really need to pay, even in Medellín which can be more expensive than surrounding areas.  $1600 USD/month for everything is enough to live on in Medellín, it's middle class.  But I'm not sure you'd want to pay half or more of your income on rent and utilities...

Many expats have found happiness in smaller, less expensive cities and villages.  The bigger cities have more amenities but also have more problems, like traffic, crime and higher prices.

You often will need a fiador, a guarantor, to rent from a company or an agent.  But if you rent direct from an owner this may not be necessary, if they trust you or you pay in advance for a set period.  You probably should not expect to find a perfect or even an acceptable place immediately.  Plan instead to stay at a place you can find by using airbnb, for maybe a month or so - you can get good rates at some for extended stays:

https://www.airbnb.com/s/Medellin--Colo … ide%5B%5D=

You can find apartments and rooms, often from the owner, using Locanto, for instance.  For most of these you'd have to speak Spanish to communicate effectively:

http://medellin.locanto.com.co/Apartame … iendo/301/http://medellin.locanto.com.co/Habitaci … iendo/302/

Many have found that the most effective way to find a good place, is to literally walk around and look for signs and talk to people.

HEALTHCARE Healthcare is not expensive in Colombia.  Many expats pay out of pocket for most of their needs.  I am not a full-time resident of Colombia and do not know much about insurance plans available, which require residency.

ASSISTANCE FROM THE VA  I don't think there's any VA assistance available in Colombia.  Often not even in the US!

If you come down for a visit first - a month or two - you can get a better idea of what's available and meet up with expats who can better answer your questions on the ground.  But also be aware, you can end up paying a premium for "help", if a lot of hand-holding is required, which may be the case if you don't speak much Spanish.  There are a lot of expats in and around Medellín so you may be able to meet up and get good advice from them, but you should not count on that.

Thank you so much for that information. I'm just worried about taxes now and that six-month timeframe

I noticed that the Locanto listings for temporary furnished rentals reference a Código, which I assume is similar to a US zip code?  Can somebody tell me the "good" codigos to focus on in and around Medellin for a short-term (1-2 month) scouting trip?

You can look here for a clickable-zoomable map of Colombia and its 4-72 postal códigos.  Zoom in on Medellín to see them, they are the 6-digit numbers and you will also see the barrio names in each one.

http://visor.codigopostal.gov.co/472/visor/

I don't know the "good" neighborhoods in Medellín, hopefully others will chime in.  But here is a PDF map of Medellín with the predominant estrato color-coded for each barrio, for what it's worth.  I'm sure you realize that the estrato is only a rough guide but generally estratos 3-6 will be safer and with more amenities (but also, estratos 5-6 may attract criminals), and you can expect prices of real estate to rise as the estrato goes up.

https://www.medellin.gov.co/irj/go/km/d … O_2010.pdf

$18,000 a year is middle class in Canada?

What a bogus article. Minimum wage is $10 an hour in most provinces. Thats about $18,000 a year with OT. And in some provinces it goes to $15 CAD and hour, which works out to well over $18,000 US  a year without .

Most people in mid to large cities  who are in that category are considered "working poor" in Canada.

Anybody can make any definitions they want, I guess.

Anyway the op gets the idea. The majority of the top 1.6% would not be consider "Rich" in North America or Europe by any means, and an estrato 6 neighbourhood would sure not be considered upper class in any city I have lived.