Menu

PR with Small children

Post new topic

stephanihayden

We will be on the island for a few months and we are looking for a smaller town on the coast. The main factor is enrolling my two elementary school age kids for the 3mo we are there.  The school would need to be bilingual as they have some Spanish. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!!!

William Cameron

Consider Palmas Del Mar on the east coast. It is a large gated community but close to Humacao… Walmart, Walgreens, Home Depot, 3 hospitals, lots of doctors. It is about 30 minutes from Caguas (Costco and Sams), and it takes me 45 minutes to get to the departure terminal in San Juan. It has a bi lingual school, Palmas Academy, it has a large beach and a harbor.

For recreation, it has 2 golf courses, several tennis courses, a beach club with a water park for kids, and several restaurants. Houses go from the multi millions ( magnificent ocean views from the hills) to $250k condos but, right now properties sell quick. They are installing 5G internet community wide. We will be the first fully 5G community in PR. And there are a lot of kids.

I can suggest a great broker, Manolo Rodriguez, MF realty, 800manolo@gmail.com. And I would contact him well before you come.

William Cameron

Oops, I did. It see the 3 months….. short term rentals are very scarce.

robaeck06

Hi William,

My name is Rob and I moved down here from Kansas City. I'm looking for a property but my lack of Spanish is definitely a problem. Does the real estate agent you recommended happen to speak English well? Thanks!

William Cameron

Yes, very well and he his a really nice person. Tell him I referred you.

William Cameron

Also don’t believe the use multiple agents thing. Like in the US most work specific areas and they all know each other. They get a bit perturbed, just as in the US, when they find out you are working with multiple agents in the sane area.

I suggest getting a single agent who you feel comfortable with and let them do their thing.

robaeck06

Thanks very much - I appreciate the help. I've been down here several times but I misjudged the need to know Spanish more then I do. I will definitely call and give your name! Rob

William Cameron

A few pieces of advice regarding limited Spanish….

1) if you meet someone at say DMV, or LUMA, or other large company that doesn’t speak English, make sure you explain you don’t speak Spanish… and apologize. We have never had an experience other than an understanding smile and the person directing us to someone who does speak English.

2) Make sure you have a voice translator app on your phone.  This has helped several times in places like gas stations and smaller shops. ( $20 on pump 4.)

3) We use a website called DeepL.com if we need to translate a website, or Spanish document. We find it is a much better translator of text than google.

Finally, when ever we need help, we ask for it, we smile and apologize for not speaking Spanish and then end with this phrase and a smile…

“ Gracias, por su ayuda” …. Thank you for your help

It always results in a return smile and a feeling of connection.

Articles to help you in your expat project in Puerto Rico

All of Puerto Rico's guide articles