Recoleta Carolina said:
I would pass on all of the suggestions.
Nothing beats being here in person with cash in hand to get the best apartment at the best price. Check out Craigslist to see what owners are asking for these days. There is a flood of apartments on the market. You can deal in person in a way that you can never do over the internet. Also, in person you will see the real location of the apartment. Check into an apart hotel for a week or two while you look around. There is alot to choose from.
I'm afraid this is the best advice so far, IMHO. Although agencies like Reynolds (who I have had several experiences with before my buddy and I bought a house in Vicente Lopez), and although they are very good (perhaps the best in terms of customer service - a concept that barely exists here) they still can't protect you from many of the common pitfalls of renting a pig in a poke, e.g an apartment that looks great but is too noisy to sleep in, or in my personal experience an owner who refused to give back a deposit in case "something came up". The Reynolds agent argued on my side for quite a while, including showing the old hag the contract she had signed (she claimed she hadn't signed it, and then when she admitted that was, in fact, her signature, she claimed she hadn't read it first and therefor it was invalid!) I finally told him to blow it off, since I had a plane to catch, this madwoman was practically foaming at the mouth by then, and it was, fortunately, only $200.
Just recently, a friend of mine rented an apartment on-line that advertised it had a washing machine. I did as it turns out, but the ad failed to mention that the machine was missing the door!
You need to check phone service, cable, internet, hot water, and basically everything, because once you've paid your money the odds of getting anything fixed are substantially reduced!
You also will have a much better idea of what part of the city you want to live in after a week or two. Recoleta or Puerto Madero might sound good on paper (or on screen) but you could easily find you like the lifestyle better in some part of Palermo, Belgrano, or even out here in the Zona Norte where the level of big-city white noise is vastly lower.
There are scores of hotels all over town, and the house I live in (actually mansion is a better decription) used to belong to the Russian ambassador, and is pretty nice! We have rooms to rent here for 35-75 U$D/night, and you don't have to put up a nickle until you see the place! PM if you are interested and I'll send you some photos of the house and some rooms.
Although there are some WYSIWYG apartments on-line, I would say the number of people I know who were unhappy with their sight-unseen apartment runs close to 50%, and the pitfalls are many and real, so consider Carolina's advice and make your life a little easier!
Suerte!
David
