sider, I saw that you put an ad for a long term hotel room in Santa Barbara or Roatan. Roatan is going to be a much different situation than Santa Barbara. There are endless fully furnished homes, apts, hotel rooms in Roatan because it is a tourist destination. The cost of living is going to be much higher there though.
Depending upon how long you are planning on staying, looking for long term hotel room in Santa Barbara is probably going to be more economical than a house in the long run since, as Dean mentioned, most houses and apartments on the mainland are completely unfurnished, not even including a stove or refrigerator. Not all, but the vast majority.
Still, again I would recommend coming here to check out the Santa Barbara hotels and bargaining for a long term rate in person. I don't know Santa Barbara, but some of the hotels I've seen in other areas are pretty bad!