Perfect Home Location: How We Found Ours
Perfect Home Location: How We Found Ours is the first post for the series How to Become Snowbirds by Age 30! Finding your perfect home location is a critical step in becoming snowbirds. The perfect location feeds into understanding your cost of living and creates the motivation to stick with the dream.
Finding Our Perfect Home Location
We found our perfect home location by accident. Yup, you read that right – it was an accident.
For the last five or so years, we knew that Mexico – specifically Baja California – was where we wanted to retire. However, it wasn’t until we took a trip earlier this year to scout out the peninsula that we found our perfect location.
In February 2020, we chose stay in an Airbnb, rent a car, and explore the area looking for a home location. In the past, we have stayed at all inclusive resorts. We planned to drive all over the peninsula looking at RV parks. What we didn’t expect was for our perfect location is be on the same property as our Airbnb!
If you need an adorable place to stay, check out our favourite AirBnb here.
Upon arrival, we checked into our first Airbnb in San José del Cabo. On our past trips, we have stayed at the Royal Solaris in SJD and wandered around in town. SJD is extremely tourist friendly and there are a lot of expats. We had strongly considered making SJD our new home because it was so comfortable.
After one night in SJD, we took off in our rental towards Los Barriles. There were a couple of RV parks in the area that we wanted to check out: Baja Sunrise RV Park (left) and East Cape RV Resort (right).
East Cape RV Resort was a strong contender. The property is absolutely amazing and clean. It is owned and run by a couple of expats from Idaho, USA. If we had not found our perfect home location in La Paz, then I am certain this is the resort we would have chosen!
We also looked at different parks in Todos Santos and La Paz. None really fit the bill on our must-haves. Once we knew what we were looking for and had strong bench mark (East Cape), it became really easy to eliminate options.
So how did we find our perfect home location? Well, like I said, it was an accident. We had thought East Cape was the one for us – we even posted it in our IG story as our new location – but when we arrived at our Airbnb in El Comitan and started exploring we quickly knew East Cape was no longer number one.
It felt like the universe was sending us a sign. The property in El Comitan checked all the boxes. Immediately we hit it off with the property manager, our new neighbours, and the community. It was so easy and felt so right!
Finding Your Perfect Home Location
Finding your perfect home location may not come to you as an accident like us. There are some things to consider when looking for your perfect home location.
When you are looking for the perfect home location, it is an absolute must to consider your must-haves and nice-to-haves. For us, the following are must-haves:
- Close proximity to the water
- Quiet, safe location
- Inexpensive cost of living (in comparison to where we live now)
- Close proximity to amenities and other ex-pats
- Beautiful landscaping and views
What are your must-haves? Comment below!
It is also very important to explore the area you think is your perfect home location. We would 100 per cent recommend you travel to the area more than once, stay with the locals and really experience the lifestyle. Stay tuned for the post where we discuss ‘testing’ the area and how to travel on a budget.
Most of all, listen to your heart. Your heart and soul will tell you when you have found your home location. It shouldn’t be complicated to decide.
Why It’s Important
The first step in How to Become Snowbirds by Age 30, is finding your perfect home location.
Once you know where you want to live, you can investigate the cost of living which waterfalls into the how of becoming a snowbird. It’s not as crazy or expensive as you think it’s going to be.
Finding your perfect home location also creates the dream. Having a crystal clear dream keeps you motivated and makes the hustle so much easier.
Keep the dream burning by creating a mood board with pictures of your perfect home location and following accounts on social media of people who are living that life!
Next week we will be looking at the cost comparison between where you live now and where you want to live. Make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it!
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