Fashionably Late

I have a Westpac one on my iPhone and know that Bankwest has one but for some bloody reason I can't find it in my app store but hubby can.

My hubby is an IT contractor here in Brisbane. We just adore it here and cannot imagine living anywhere else. He is a about 10 days out from contract expiry but thinking there will be a short term extension. Always good to know of IT recruiters.

We used Robinson's for our move and they were brilliant. I would highly recommend them. We didn't even have one breakage and everything they dealt with was extremely efficient.

Welcome to the forum!

This is very true. We had some issues to overcome and George was simply brilliant. He knows everyone and everything and was truly brilliant.

We enjoyed our time there. If it had been closer to the CBD and the schools we had chosen for our daughters then we would have definitely stayed. The people were extremely friendly and the area is very nice.

We stayed in Redland Bay for 6 weeks whilst we found housing in the western suburbs. Rudi is from there and has a wealth of information on the area.

He isn't located in the ACT but is from there. George Lombard is brilliant and very highly thought of.

We paid £3800 from Northamptonshire (middle of nowhere village) to Brisbane. Quote was also valid for Sydney, Melbourne and Perth as we weren't sure where we were going.

Armidale is a lovely place. Our neighbour's daughter goes to university there and one of my good friend's has her son in boarding school there. Good luck settling in.

We had to pay ours up front and we transferred the money to ours via HIFX. HIFX lets you use a credit card but the exchange rate is worse.

Ok. When we rented in Redland Bay it took us about 45 minutes to the Mater and an additional 15-20 to get to the CBD. But we only did it for 6 weeks.

I have only been up that way a few times en route to other places. It seems nice driving through it but I have never stopped there except to shop at Chermside. We chose not to live up that way simply because we were warned the traffic getting into the CBD was pretty horrific and that Gympie Rd can sit at a stand still. According to whereis.com you can get from Albany Creek to the Mater in about 30 minutes but that probably isn't factoring traffic so it would probably be more like 45-60 minutes in rush hour. When I just looked on realestate.com.au and domain.com.au there was only one 4 bedroom house with a pool for less than $700 a week.

For your budget and the ability to commute I would look towards the Bayside suburbs. You should definitely be able to find a house and a pool out there for that budget. The Bayside suburbs are quite lovely and we liked it out there and would have considered it if our kids weren't in schools out where we are located now.

The Mater is quite easy to get to from most of Brisbane. A lot will be dependent on how much you want to spend on rent and how far you are willing to commute.

We were offered spaces at Pymble Ladies College for our three daughters without ever being on a waiting list. A lot depends on when you call and so forth.

No worries and I look forward to hearing from her if she needs someone to chat with. Golder isn't far from our house at all and we know this area quite well now.

Is she at Golder in Toowong? I think that is where one of my friend's husbands work.

For me, I would look at Sinnamon Park, Jindalee, Sherwood, Chapel Hill, Seventeen Mile Rocks, Indooroopilly and Graceville. One of the mums at my twins school is renting at Seventeen Mile Rocks whilst her house is being built in Indooroopilly and she says she really likes it out there. ETA: Does she know anyone in the area? If not, I would be happy to pass on my mobile number so she has someone local to chat with.

If Kenmore was between the two then she does have quite a few options as far as brilliant suburbs.

No, you don't have to have an agent. Many have done it themselves. I used an agent and to me it was money very well spent. I figured if I was spending a huge amount of money on the visa application and medical any way I didn't want to chance making an error that could have cost me the chance at a visa or making costly mistakes.

Your poor sister. Our first housing experience in Australia wasn't what I had envisioned either and it helped me to find a property sooner rather later to at least keep my hopes up. Kenmore and FTP had a lot of rentals recently so hopefully more will come onto the market soon. Has she thought about Chapel Hill as well? Possibly Jindalee? What sort of property is she searching for and maybe we can help?

We live not too far out from the CBD. We pay $900 a week in rent for a 4 bedroom house. We haven't had to fill our LPG tanks for our gas oven but that's the only thing that's gas in our house (except the BBQ and that cost $28 to refill for a 9kg tank). Our electricity bill was $685 for the last quarter. Our water is paid by our landlord. Our kids are in private school and the school fees for this term were $1400 for our twins and $3700 for our eldest. No TV licence and we pay $76 a month for Foxtel (like Sky). Our phone and broadband are bundled together and it is $109 a month. Cars are dependent on what you want and whether new or secondhand. My car insurance is $76. Our private health insurance is $273.50 a month. We don't need separate ambulance cover in QLD. My husband's train ticket can cost around $3.50 each way from Taringa (we live in Toowong but Taringa station is closer). When he has to go to Ipswich (for work occasionally) is can be about $6.30 each way. We shop around for groceries and it averages between $200-$250 a week. Some weeks are less and some more dependent on what I am planning on cooking. We love where we live and are building a house in this same area. It takes my husband about 7 minutes from the station to get into the CBD.

We were told, prior to choosing private schools, that they needed to see a long term lease for proof of address in a cachement area. They wouldn't accept short-term rentals for address. We are in the western suburbs of Brisbane.

We rented ours for 6 weeks and it actually was too long. 3-4 weeks would have been fine.