emurivjae

hadn't looked into berwick at all actually, but it's not too far, I'll add it to our list! I have heard to avoid dandenong for the most part. And I have heard frankston is so/so... with crime being worst in the north.. anyone who can verify this? 

We're looking in that area due to friends and family that are in the area. Is the area near Jells Park a nice family area?

thanks for the thoughts. Any reasons why to stick to mordialloc area over the ringwood area? I haven't looked into the others listed but will. 

We are moving in a month to Melbourne and have two young boys. Looking for some quick advice or suggestions on a good location as we will only have 6 wks to secure a rental. 

Things that would be ideal for our family:

-Probably looking in the area from mordiallic up and east and north of Dandenong and west of or barely in the ranges. Open to other suggestions though.
-About $400/wk rent price
-Family friendly area (families, safe, parks, good schools)
-We prefer being near trees, hiking, parks, we don't need to be near the beach unless schools and pricing win out 
-Not too rural, need access to kids extracurricular activities like swim etc
-schools that are more nature oriented and hands on, I'm more concerned with good teachers and teaching methods than test results 
-Personality wise we are very family oriented and co-sleep etc and it'd be a plus if there are certain pockets of like-minded more natural-oriented families, though it's certainly not a necessity for us. 
-places that have caught my eye but have extremely limited knowledge of: ringwood, vermont, ferntree gully, belgrave, wheelers hill, aspendale, south part of frankston

Thank you so much for any thoughts, having only 6 weeks to narrow down a rental, any help received will actually be incredibly helpful for us.

I work in Burwood and used to live in Box Hill. Jan-Feb is peak season for rentals in Melbourne as a whole, but competition shouldn't be too fierce in the areas that you're looking at, especially if you can demonstrate that you're solid tenants (and therefore potentially preferable to students).

 

There's good advice in previous replies about getting all your supporting documentation together in advance. I included a cover letter outlining my circumstances, a copy of my visa grant letter and a reference from my previous UK landlord with my applications. No idea if it made a difference, but I got offered all three places that I applied for.

 

If you've got specific queries about Burwood (or Deakin, if that's the uni in question), feel free to PM me.

Thank you to everyone for the advice shared. We will have everything on hand as ready as possible. We're a little hesitant with kids to rent without going to the places first so we're planning to stay at a furnished extend-stay hotel and then find a rental in person as quickly as possible to minimize the hole burning in our pockets ha.

We are planning to move in February and will be needing to find a rental somewhat near Burwood (Ferntree Gully, Rowville, Ringwood and the like is within distance)... BUT I have been told its very competitive to get a rental so now I'm a bit worried.

We have two young kids and are looking to find a house (not apartment) around $400/week in a good area. Will this be difficult to do in that price range and area? What should we plan to expect?

We can't really be without a place to live, as we need to set up, keep the stress down for our kids and start uni shortly after arriving.

yes sorry I did not mention, from the USA. Voltage and motors I've heard is a major issue. I've read that appliances like this fail after a few months-year on a transformer regardless. Thinking I should sell and repurchase in Aus on the gumtree.

thank you for the responses. I'll check out the fidi site.

Has anyone any experience with international van lines?

My stuff is certainly not even worth $7000 (we have not accumulated much, and other things are on their last legs).

I'm not needing much space, even 2-3CBM would be adequate (even if it's slow shipping, it'd be nice to bring a few things over - xmas tree, non essentials and the like).

Any ideas on cost for a slow, shared container that is on the rather small side?

I'm seriously thinking that I should just box up some things under the 62" linear inch guides of the airlines instead of looking into containers. Pay a couple hundred dollars, since I found recently they do accept cardboard boxes as luggage.

I am debating whether to bring my vitamix. My family uses it daily. They are close to $1000 in AUD. yikes!

BUT... I have a few big concerns as to whether it's worth bringing -it will need converters/transformers (take up counter space?), AND if those converters fail, it will kill the blender (and then I'm out the roughly $300-$400 I could have recouped by selling it here for before moving).

Whats your experience with bringing valuable appliances that need electrical conversion? If you could do it again, would you sell and use the money to buy one is Aus?

I know I could maybe find one on gumtree but are there equivalents in stores (that aren't $800+)??

I know this is primarily for those from the UK, but I am finding it's not a very straightforward thing to find trusted/recommended container companies. Maybe I'm not looking in the right places. I am wondering if anyone has some suggestions from experience, or even a list/site/blog/whatever they can point me to. Or if all else fails, how do you recommend I search for this?

I am just really nervous about trusting any of these companies as I know nothing about any that show up in my google searches.

I really just want to start figuring out the cost for different size containers to see what we might want to bring or not. So if anyone has rough cost $ estimates please just throw some numbers at me, I'd greatly appreciate that too!

how about a company that has affordable containers? Similar to the college moving pod style. What is the starting cost for something like that? (I'm just barely starting my research on all this so sorry I'm a bit oblivious still)

Depends what 'anything' is.

 

You have personal effects surely? Clothes, personal items, a few books or some such perhaps?

 

We didn't ship much furniture but did ship all our personal effects from clothes to bedding, kitchen ware (it has taken me 20 plus years to build that up and I love my kitchen stuff), books, DVDs, CD's, kids toys, a few xmas decorations, ornaments, especially the ones with sentimental value, paperwork it was important to keep... it adds up. I'd not have moved if I was only arriving with a suitcase of clothes. The things I've gathered over my life are important to me in making home 'home'. I don't need everything but the core things were a no brainer to bring.

 

End of the day, its personal choice as to what you ship or don't ship. It will cost you to replace this side but depending on your budget, it can be as little or as much as you can afford. You can buy a toaster here for $20AUS. Same with a kettle. Will it be great quality and still working well a year or two in after daily use, different matter.

 

If you are coming from the US check the voltage aspect on US electrical items. Its different in Aus iirc.

definitely will add up, this is why I am looking into options like 7 seas and packmybag I just found too...I am certain we won't be able to fit it all into 4 suitcases. It's been quite awhile since I've flown and I'm sure they might freak out at some of the stuff I am thinking of jamming into my luggage. I am not sure on the restrictions yet, will look them up, but I could run into problems such as a blender might not even be allowed in luggage..

sorry I can't seem to edit but it should read [h=2]is it worth bringing anything IF not *bringing* furniture?[/h]

We're planning to move with just a few suitcases as our furniture is all basically old/worthless/etc. But there are some things (like our vitamix) that is a heap of money and may not fit in the suitcase.

What kind of options are there for say a small container. I notice just shipping my toaster oven through the mail would cost $200-$400 (over it's value). So I am left thinking I'd better sell it and buy a new one in Australia once we get there.

But Is there any reasonable options for lumping everything into a very affordably priced moving container or pod of some sort? Company recommends? Would truly appreciate your thoughts and suggestions!