Bali luxury villas are cheaper than you think

What is up guys? And welcome to a brand new Bali House Hunters episode 3. I think this is my third time doing this bit of a short rundown. I am currently on the move into Bali and with that being said, I'm trying to find a villa that I will call my home base for the next year. So it needs to be perfect. It can't be the kind of place that you find out a week into renting that your Wi-Fi doesn't work, or that your landlord's crazy, or that you live next to a grass field that's basically a home base for mosquitoes. Not only is it financially an investment, but it's also an emotional investment. And with that being said, I am definitely taking my time to make sure that I pick the right place. I wanted to show you the process of finding my place, and maybe at the end of this video, you'll find out if I actually found it. Hmm, Now a couple comments up front before you guys start bashing me being like this guy is so ungrateful or something like that, I want to mention that in this video I am poker faced. I am keeping it as straight as possible because I'm either looking at these properties with a landlord who actually owns the property or I'm looking with a real estate agent. When you show your hand and you say, Oh my gosh, this is the place, there's probably not going to be any budging on the price. So that is why sometimes I may come across as a little bit cold, a little bit unexcited because I'm trying to keep myself the best opportunity to negotiate after leaving the property. All the properties that you'll see here will be listed in the Indonesian rupiah currency, which is about a conversion that will look sort of like this. I'm going to be fully transparent with this. I typically would like to keep a bit of the budgeting side to myself, but you know I wouldn't be able to give you proper information about the properties if I wasn't disclosing how much they costed and therefore roughly what my budget is. Now with that being said, you know you can find much cheaper properties in Bali. I have friends that have stayed there for $300 a month. They had a very basic clean room with a shared pool, a nice little community to it. So you can definitely do it on the cheap. But I'm looking for some very unique things that will allow this place to not only be my home, but also to be my headquarters and to be able to have guests over when they come visit. With that being said, I'm trying to find a property that is anywhere from 180 to to 250 million, yes, million. And with the 250 million I'm going to be needing like some form of subleasing or some permission to do so. So that's where it gets a little more complicated because as it stands, I won't even be in Bali full time. I'll constantly be traveling. So that's where it becomes a fine balance of going for the lower end of the budget, having it left empty, or if I go to the upward end of the budget, then having a way that I can keep it occupied, even if it it just means having friends over where I charge them a small staying fee. As you might say, this is the place that while we do our villa hunting, we have been staying in and this is actually just an Airbnb rental right now. I'm paying around fifty U.S. dollars per day. That's a pretty incredible deal to have such a beautiful loft. But the thing that made this absolutely insane of a deal was the fact that it was right on top of an Italian restaurant. And every morning Kathy and I had breakfast included with fruit smoothies with Benedict or avocado or whatever we wanted. It was fantastic value. But it's located in Seminyak, which for me is certainly not my top choice of places to live in, but it is pretty nice for visiting. With that being said, the first property we're going to be seeing here is on the top of my budget. In fact, it has well surpassed it. But I was curious. This was at the beginning of my search. So this first place here was 270 million. And with that being said, we had to go a little ways out of changgu to get here. We were going through rice terraces, a few more rice terraces and pretty much out into the most rural side Chenggu has to offer, right near Mungu Beach. As you can see here though, this property is stunning. The pool, the outdoor living space is amazing with the right decorating with a few more touches. This is showroom quality. This villa is absolutely beautiful and to be honest, it was a little bit too nice. I didn't need anything quite this extravagant outdoor shower. Big Bali style tub and so there's six villas sharing this one front entrance and so you've got basically nighttime security. They make sure that no random person is coming through here, which for me that's a huge, huge perk. The master living space was down on the bottom floor and the guest suite was on the top floor. Now, one thing that I didn't like about this building was the fact that they were actually the exact same size. If I'm going to be living somewhere, I want the master to be the largest, most usable space. I'd rather have my guest suite maybe like 1/2 of the size. There's not going to be someone staying staying with me full time and so I'm hoping to find a place that kind of fits that form. Factor the entire area is just surrounded by rice terraces, so that does raise the concern of bugs. I asked about mosquitoes in the area. He said that they do a defogging process that basically they spray chemicals that but for about a two week. We'll keep all the mosquitoes away. They do it every two weeks. So he said it's very effective. This is the spare guest bathroom, basically a replica of downstairs. Beautiful. I love it. And literally right out the door. Is the beach. So this one. Was right on Mongu beach. You got no. Grocery stores, no coffee. Shops no saibles? There's really no. Close. Convenience. To it you. Can't really walk to get. Food or to meet. People. So for that reason, it's just too. Far overall my thoughts were this. The villa was beautiful but it was kind of out of my budget. The location was horrible and the Wi-Fi was the biggest deal breaker of all. It was like a less than one MBS download upload speed. So in other words, if you were to try to open Google, you'd probably have to sit there and wait at least 10 seconds just for the Google page to open. It is a deal breaker. I need to have high speed Internet, which is actually completely possible in Changgu where they sell up to 50 MBS, upload and download. So we got back on the bike and we headed to the next. So this villa here was around 215 or 220,000,000 per year. I can't exactly remember the final price. It was in the Umalas area, which is actually a pretty good neighborhood, very close to Changgu, and it's definitely somewhere that I would consider living. Not my top choice, but definitely not far behind Chengu. 2 bedrooms, a pool in the inside courtyard, and it was outdoor living. So in other words, the family room was not completely enclosed. It was open to the outside and so you wouldn't be able to AC it, but because it was kind of tucked away underneath the concrete, it felt like it had a bit of a cooler feeling to it. Now, one thing I will say as well is that you can't always pick up on the detailing in this video. You can't see that the carpet had some tears or that there was a hole in the couch. And so there there are fine little things that definitely were part of the decision process but won't necessarily show up in the video. That was definitely the case for this property here where there was a lot of different parts of this property that desperately needed cleaning. Now I talked to the owner and he guaranteed me that should I put a one year lease down on this property, it would be given to me in tip top shape. But The thing is the way negotiations work in Bali is you hand over the money 1st and then you move in. I personally don't like the idea of that because once they have the money, I like to think that their incentive also decreases. They may have promised me a squeaky clean villa, but at the end of the day, once they have their money, well, what are you going to do? So that for me it was a major turn off on this property, but I did like it. I thought it was quite pretty. I thought it had some nice elements to it, but there was also some not so great things like the bathrooms. The bathrooms were outdated and the worst thing of all, they didn't have a real shower. They basically just had a shower head that hung from the wall. That for me was a bit of buzzkill. I hate to put so many disclaimers, but before someone tries to bash me in the comments that I'm being too picky, please just keep in mind that I am trying to find my home and something like a shower may not be important to you, but to me it is very important to have a nice shower. I left this property feeling there was a chance, but I don't think this is the one next property. Now. Villain #3 is not one that I filmed very well. In fact, it was a very awkward experience to go in here because there were still people living there and they were actually in their property while I came through. So we kind of got a few dirty looks. We felt very uncomfortable as we looked around, but they were kind enough to kind of show us around a little bit. There was like 3 bedrooms in this property and the thing I didn't like is they were all identical to each other. So this is a great system if you have three people sharing the rent, but again, my situation is not like that. Another thing I wasn't fond of was the brick. I didn't really like that the living room didn't have a warm cozy feel to it. It just felt like it was basically surrounded by brick. Now the rooms themselves were actually pretty decent, they were quite nice and the bathrooms were nice and clean. This villa here is also in the Umalas area. I'd give it about AB or AB minus decent area because it's close to Changu but it didn't have walking distance to certain things like a grocery store, but still a pretty good location. One other thing that I can't really put to words or describe based on what I saw was actually the feeling I had in this property and for me, it just didn't feel right. There was almost a bad vibe to it, and I'm not one of those people that's all about vibes, that's not who I am. But when I left the building, I kind of felt relieved to be out of there. Maybe it was kind of The Dirty looks, but I just knew that that wasn't the right place. Now, despite having three bedrooms, it was actually relatively affordable. This one was about 2:20, maybe 2:30 if I remember correctly. But at the end of the day, it wasn't the place that got me excited. So we can't move in villa #4 and this is in the Umalas area as well. This one was big. It had three bedrooms. It had a nice little pool area, but again, this is one of those buildings where it didn't feel right. It didn't feel like my place and there were certain furnishings that were a little bit outdated. This one was actually 250 million and with it being on the upward end of my budget it needs to be something I loved and it really wasn't. Lovely view, bit of a busy St. You got a. View of the pool. It's big A. Little bit old. Not super cheap for what it is, I think. So this is second spare. Yeah, the Red Porch is the. Second one. So this is the master, yes. OK, there was things that didn't really make sense. For example, the master didn't have a shower where it was a bathtub. There was 3 very large bedrooms. But I would rather see that the master was the. Biggest and then there was two kind of side bedrooms for me, that one just didn't make sense. It came in at. 250 million, yeah, I think overpriced and also keep in mind. You always negotiate, so even though they're asking for 250, you could probably get it down to 220. Today was a bit of a strike out. I can't say any of these. Villas were the. Exact right fit that I'm looking. For but this. Is only episode 2 of Villa hunting apparently. I was hoping today would be the. Last episode, but we're going to keep. Looking until we find the right. Spot. It's not like you're going to see the first property and necessarily fall in love with it. It takes a bit of time to find the right place and I am committed to finding it. Later that night Kathy and I had an amazing workout at Wanderlust CrossFit which is my go to place in Bali to get a good workout. Right now I want to show you something that I just did for the. Very first time. Let's see if we can do it again. Starting now. Starting now. After that, we headed off to one of our favorite sushi restaurants in Chengu in the Barawa area and that is Suksama Sushi. We got an entire platter shared for the two of us for 130,000. This was 100. 39. Which is roughly about ten U.S. dollars, pretty cheap. Now the following morning we had one more villa to see and that was this villa right here. This villa had a lot of things going for it. I really liked the layout. I love the fact that it had indoor living that could become outdoor living with these sliding doors. The reason that's so great is because that you can AC that space and make sure that it stays cool when it's hot outside. And as you probably know, Bali definitely gets very humid, very hot in here. You got some little fishies. Do they come with it? Hey guys, I'll have to name them. Another great thing about it is that it had three bedrooms. It was in the Barawa area, which is actually, again, very close to the place I do CrossFit. It's close to a lot of the great restaurants. And it came in at 215,000,000, which is actually one of the cheaper places I had seen. So overall, I was actually very excited about this place. Very next door. Oh, fish. Attack Fish attack. OK, so. There's a second kitchen because I cook so much. Here, that comes with the washing machine, yeah. OK, that's a positive. And another toilet. Man, in case your whole crew gets Bali belly, you're set. Kathy, if I cook, we'll need all these bathrooms. It is weird toilet. It's nice. That's the master. Yeah. All right. Nice little. Guest suite here with its own bathroom. Very nice. Could use a bit. Of cleaning, but good, simple could use a mirror. Got another guest room? Here out here you have the green terraces. That's beautiful. Though you might not have that forever. I'm sure they'll develop it at some point. New coffee table, new couch. Comes with a full size fridge so you can completely slide. All these doors open. Now whether I got a place that was 180 million or 270 million, the actual monthly fees for maids, for pool cleaners, for all that stuff would be very similar. So I'll go ahead and show you what you can expect to spend. You have your cost. They're asking 2. 15215 for the year. With that you can do a bit of negotiation. I would assume you could. Probably. Get them down to at least 200. Plus about 18,000,000 for housekeeping. The maid comes in three days a week and that is going to cost you about 18,000,000 for the year. Yeah, about 6,000,000 for. Pool 6,000,000 a year. For pool. Cleaning, and that includes chemicals. The guy that comes in and takes care of everything, Maybe he feeds the fish, I don't really know. Yeah, and how much for Internet? 600 per month. For Internet you're paying around 600,000 per month for high speed Internet. I'm assuming that's the 25 megabytes per second upload and download. Another 7 million, roughly. 7.7200. OK. And then it's pretty standard that you give about one month worth of rent for deposits. So that's money you get back, but definitely a relevant cost because you need to have that money upfront. The thing with renting in Bali is you don't pay month by month. You typically will pay all upfront. Maybe you could negotiate paying the first six months or something along those lines, but I don't think that's very. Typical. There's also. Something known as a banjar fee, and basically it's like a community fee. Is my understanding. Kind of like you're paying someone to Overwatch your house and take. Care of you. I don't fully understand it, but it's not that big of an expense. You're looking at like $15.00 a month, so $150.00 over a year. Not a huge investment, but it does make you ask what is that money going towards? It's pretty incredible because when I was living downtown Vancouver doing my accounting job, making just barely enough to get by, I was renting a place that was basically taking all of my disposable income. It was going straight into my rent and I was paying close to what I'd be paying for one of. These places. I had one bedroom, I had a kitchen, and mind you, it wasn't a nice neighborhood and it was a pretty clean, nice place. But it was nothing extravagant, nothing special. It was bare basics. For Vancouver living. And to think that you take that money, you bring it here to Bali, if you can earn your income online, that right there is one of the main advantages of being in Southeast Asia. Overall, I left this property thinking that this could be the place that I put an offer on. It wasn't perfect. It definitely had a few shortcomings. The bathrooms were a little outdated. Certain things definitely needed cleaning. Now, there was one thing that I had to keep into account and that was the fact that it wasn't really that well decorated. It was kind of like a blank canvas, which is actually an awesome opportunity to make it your own. But with that comes a cost. So, you know, at the end of the day, once I put a carpet, a bunch of furnishings in, would it be the cheap place that I found it at or would it have been just as expensive or even more expensive than the 250 million properties that did have a bit of personality and a bit of decorating. But you will have to tune in for the next episode of Bali House Hunting. That is where I'm going to end off today's episode because there's definitely room for another where you'll see a few more of the final properties. Find out which property I put an offer on because you'll find that out in the next episode. And guys, if you're new to my channel, if you don't know what the space is all about what kind of videos I make, I make lots and lots of travel videos about Bali, about Southeast Asia. If you want to see high quality cinematic travel blogs or more real estate videos just like this, make sure to hit the subscribe button down below there or on this bubble right here. And if you want to see my previous Volley house hunting video, click on the video right up here and you get to see some of the properties I visited about 8 months ago now. They're probably not in the market anymore, but they're pretty cool and it gives you a bit more of a feel of the costs and all of that jazz. So guys, hope you joined the channel and let's get lost again in the next one. By the way, stay tuned for the video where I go looking for bikes. It's time to find my Volley cruiser.