Difficulty in Securing a Rental

[Panditas]

Hi I'm a new member from Southern California.

I am planning to move to Baja with my family. I am finding property owners lie about what their property is like and where it's located only for me to find out that it's not in the neighborhood as once state, or that their property only has one bathroom versus 3 for a 3 bedroom. Some of them set up a time to meet with you and then never show up. Is this common??

I'm securing a one month rental to stay in the area where I plan to settle, in hopes that in that month, a good rental will come up and I will be in that town to hear about it. Is this usually how it's done? I'm already through week #1 and still haven't found anything suitable. The one piece of property I did find, wanted to lock my lease in for a year, which I have difficulty doing. I do not feel compelled to lock into any lease over 6 months as I figured by then, if I don't like the place or location, I will want to move.

Also - in this area, they have bilingual schools that primarily teach (80%) in Spanish. It was recommended that my daughter sit out for a year and study Spanish before entering into any of the local private schools because her language skills in Spanish are minimal. I guess I need to secure a tutor but was wondering if this is a good recommendation from the school. If I follow what they say to do, this will put my daughter back a grade. As a mother, I feel kind of crummy about that.

Feedback on this topic is welcomed.

Common....yes.
How its done....yes.
Good recommendation.....Yes.

We have been somewhat lucky with family in the area we are looking at so we have not had the struggle of securing somewhere to live but I wanted to give you a little bit of feedback on the schooling.
My children are learning Spanish now but very slowly. We decided to pull them out of school starting this year and homeschool them through this and maybe next year until their Spanish is up to speed. Also, it was recommended to us by family that the kids start by going half days and continuing their American home schooling for the begining of next year. We are still in the States until we complete a lagging issue but are hoping to be in Mexico by the end of the year. I understand the trepidation about your daughter's schooling. My prayer for my kids is that they get so much more out of the new environment that missing the old one won't be so bad. Good luck!