cartertucker Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 I am curious to know what people did on arrival please.... If you rented a furnished property (pre-booked or not? Mayby you went into a hotel?) Or Unfurnished, then bought your own stuff, ready to put into your own home, when you eventually bought it? :confused: Just trying to plan in my mind what we may do, so any ideas, thoughts & advice will be gratefully recieved...Many thanks :cute: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cartertucker Posted July 12, 2009 Author Share Posted July 12, 2009 Forgot to say....:chatterbox: My worry with furnished is: If you then start buying your own furniture (we arent shipping over stuff) Where would you store it? My worry with Unfurnished is: Would you be tempted to rush into buying stuff & as you dont know the shops etc...May regret your purchases later on? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Yuills Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 Hi Kelly, We rented a short term furnished let in the area that we were interested in, just to get a feel of the place. As we loved the area we then started looking for long term unfurnished rental, which we are now in. I would do it again this way..ok we paid a high rent for the first 6 weeks, but having it furnished and for 6 weeks took away the stress of mving here, and also allowed you to get a feel for all the shops and where you can get a bargain. Our container came 6 days after we moved into our unfurnished rental so is worked out quite well. Also doing it this way we had 6 weeks we did not have to worry about rent as that had been paid weeks ahead while still in the UK and both of us were working. Just saw your second post... when buying furniture most shops will set a delivery date with you so you could always try to push for a few weeks, or in the garage, most houses here have large double garages!!!! Hope this helps. Sue x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 We managed to book a 12 week furnished rental prior to coming over, we shipped our furniture which arrived as the rental period finished and was delivered to our new house. If you're shipping furniture, some companies will arrange storage for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest traybears Posted July 12, 2009 Share Posted July 12, 2009 We used a Relocations company (Sarah from Gold Coast Relocations) who was fantastic.She had us a rental house waiting for when we arrived.Couldn't fault her.Tracy.xx. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nurse sue Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I am curious to know what people did on arrival please.... If you rented a furnished property (pre-booked or not? Mayby you went into a hotel?) Or Unfurnished, then bought your own stuff, ready to put into your own home, when you eventually bought it? :confused: Just trying to plan in my mind what we may do, so any ideas, thoughts & advice will be gratefully recieved...Many thanks :cute: Hi Kelly we were fortunate to have made friends with someone on PIO and the unit next to her was coming up for lease previvously inhabited by another pom family she told the manager we were best friends (never layed eyes on her till the day we arrived ) The complex was lovely the area isnt the best in the world but rental for only 6mths But things meant for a reason Hubby job offer fell through but after 12 weeks of being unemployed he managed to get a job with the local council short term but has just after 12 mths has secured a permanent position. We were fortunate that we shipped our stuff here and we arrived at 2.30 container arrived at 3. we brought electrical items here. A friend moved to oz and she hired furniture/house hold goods until her container arrived and stated it wasnt expensive and ensured no expensive compulsive buying Good luck in your new adventure Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest17301 Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 We booked a fully furnished rental for 6 weeks while we looked around for something permanent. Would recommend this, although rent was high don't forget no bills to pay during that period. Gave us a good amount of time to look around. In hindsight 4 weeks would have been enough as the rentals we looked at as soon as we arrived were immediately available putting us out of the running as we had 6 weeks in our fully furnished. It was nice to stay in a 'holiday home' at first as it gave us time to draw breath and enjoy the place rather than frantically search for somewhere permanent straight away. We bought furniture and stored it in our short term rental garage then hired a van on moving day and were sorted. Our container arrived a few weeks later but we only shipped a few things, we rented a washer/fridge/freezer while waiting for ours to come and bought a bed, when ours arrived it went into the guest room. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Bray Family Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 We rented a furnished appartment in the city for 2 weeks.Then moved into an unfurnished rental slept on airbeds and sat on camp chairs until our furniture arrived.Brought a cheap kettle, fridge and kitchen equipment until mine arrived.You can rent furniture maybe an idea until you decide on what furniture to buy gives you a bit of time to look around for furniture. sarah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest snow white Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 we looked into renting before we got here found that no realtors even bothered to reply and because we have 6 children we wanted to get settled asap. we used sunrise relocations jayne burke she was excellent very helpful adn had everything ready for us when we arrrived she even picked us up and took us for shopping and to sort out driving licenses medicare etc thats the reason i set up expat relocations wanted to be able to help people settle into their new life asap . and found the service something we were pleased we used i know though that plenty people just book short term for when they arrive then look around themselves for where they want to be to make sure their happy with their choices. i guess it is really down to your own personal preferences we also hired furniture and white goods short term as we did ship all ours over best of luck whatever you decide lesley x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greengables Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 I have to say furnished worked so much better for us. No need to buy anything (which is also quite reassuring in the early days of migration - when you are still looking for jobs etc it's great to not have to outlay all that extra cash for things you may decide you don't like later on.) Once you buy your own home you then have a blank slate and can take the time to buy things you really love at the right price! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest shawgorbys Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 Great thread and i think this is most peeps worrys especially if you are going and dont know anyone which is us dont take that the wrong way everyone on here has been very supportive were heading to perth and hubby will be working at osbourne park we have twin boys who are 14 take care everyone Andrea,Gary,Jack,Tom, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cartertucker Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 Thankyou everyone that has posted on this thread, you have all given me some excellent advice & believe me, I really am gonna take it on board & use it wisely :yes: Just gotta wait for our State Sponsership approval to come through (fingers crossed) in the next month or two & then I can start making the firm plans Many thanks once again :notworthy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest snow white Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 make sure you let us know when you get it best wishes lesley x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cartertucker Posted July 13, 2009 Author Share Posted July 13, 2009 make sure you let us know when you get it best wishes lesley x Im sure I will......:biglaugh: Thanks again Lesley :cute: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basicweb Posted July 13, 2009 Share Posted July 13, 2009 We managed to rent a house from a friend of a friend as it was up for sale but empty. We spent the first night on airbeds with 2 camping chairs and a camping fridge, went out the next day and bought a bed for delivery that day, so it did limit our choice somewhat. We tried to find rentals through the Real Estate agents, but struggled as we couldn't view them or supply a credit history. So anyway we furnished the house and made it look good, but of course it sold really quickly so we had to move out! This is a real problem for people moving over, so we were in the fortunate position to be able to buy a rental property, now that we are settled; and we rent this fully furnished with everything including linen towels and kitchen utensils, with the most important being wine glasses. The house has a large shed/double garage, so when the furniture comes over there is a secure place to store it. So in conclusion I would go furnished for at least the first 4 weeks, this will give you time to look around and find a regular rental in an area where you want to be. Good luck Tracey www.ozhouserental.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest r17ych Posted August 3, 2009 Share Posted August 3, 2009 We booked a fully furnished rental for 6 weeks while we looked around for something permanent. Would recommend this, although rent was high don't forget no bills to pay during that period. Gave us a good amount of time to look around. In hindsight 4 weeks would have been enough as the rentals we looked at as soon as we arrived were immediately available putting us out of the running as we had 6 weeks in our fully furnished. It was nice to stay in a 'holiday home' at first as it gave us time to draw breath and enjoy the place rather than frantically search for somewhere permanent straight away. We bought furniture and stored it in our short term rental garage then hired a van on moving day and were sorted. Our container arrived a few weeks later but we only shipped a few things, we rented a washer/fridge/freezer while waiting for ours to come and bought a bed, when ours arrived it went into the guest room. Hi Fiona we are considering bringing very little over and buying new. How expensive is it? What did you buy and were they costly? I am trying to find furniture shops in Brisbane online to try and find out costs of things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr & Mrs Brown Posted August 5, 2009 Share Posted August 5, 2009 Hiya My Husband & I are having a very similar debate, I am all for going for 4weeks in furnished short term but my husband seems to think that it will take us DAYS to find a longer term solution... We are moving to Melbourne and know that we can't rent without actually physically seeing the property which is fair enough, there seems to be a lot of choice but I am worried that there is also a lot of competition for the apartments available and it will take us longer than we think to get ourselves a longer lease. Does anyone have any advice on how to get an unfurnished apartment quickly? Do you think that say, 5 days in short term is long enough to find somewhere??!! Many thanks xAx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greengables Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Personally I would buy yourselves a little more time to be on the safe side. I can understand that money is a big factor when making the move so the thought of booking 2-4 weeks of short term furnished accommodation probably feels like it is going to be a waste of money if you get a long term option more quickly. However I think 5 days could be pushing it. Your first 2 days are likely to leave you feeling a little jet-lagged and spaced out, the enormity of the move hits, you are in a strange place and everything takes longer as you try to work out how to get around and how to find out what needs to be done. Not always a good head space to make longer term rental decisions in. Also the pressure of having to find something so quickly means that you may end up settling for a sub par longer term option at more than you want to pay just in order to get it settled. Any sniff of desparation is likely to result in you paying top dollar so it's not a good position to be in to negotiate yourself the best longer term deal. Also remember if you find a perfect place with a current tenant you may not be in a position to move straight away...a lot of great places already have someone in them and their moving date is unlikely to coincide with your 5 day option. If you are looking at realestate.com to assess the availability of suitable rentals then a word of warning....we did this too and we found that they often forget to remove the listings so while there seems like loads and loads of great rentals on there it isn't actually always the case when you ring up. I don't live in Melbourne so I don't know what it is like but I would say it could be wise to check with other recent Melbourne arrivals to see how long it has taken them to find something and how easy it actually is. If it was me then I would certainly book no less than 2 weeks (and probably more like 3 or 4) in a furnished rental. There are plenty on stayz.com and realestate.com to shop around to get a good price. I would also book car hire for the same period. Giving yourself some time to go and check out not only the rental but to walk around the suburb, have a coffee, look at the facilities/shops and to see if it's not only a house but an area you can happily live in long term. If you do find a longer term option more quickly then it's also nice to have the overlap and to have extra time coming home to a furnished short term while you do the shopping and bargain hunting for the initial furniture and electricals to make your new long term let liveable. Although the initial outlay for a short term rental seems a lot, giving yourself this extra breathing space can help to prevent lots of costly snap decisions - could end up saving you loads more in the long run. I hope your new Melbourne life is lovely! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr & Mrs Brown Posted August 6, 2009 Share Posted August 6, 2009 Personally I would buy yourselves a little more time to be on the safe side. I can understand that money is a big factor when making the move so the thought of booking 2-4 weeks of short term furnished accommodation probably feels like it is going to be a waste of money if you get a long term option more quickly. However I think 5 days could be pushing it. Your first 2 days are likely to leave you feeling a little jet-lagged and spaced out, the enormity of the move hits, you are in a strange place and everything takes longer as you try to work out how to get around and how to find out what needs to be done. Not always a good head space to make longer term rental decisions in. Also the pressure of having to find something so quickly means that you may end up settling for a sub par longer term option at more than you want to pay just in order to get it settled. Any sniff of desparation is likely to result in you paying top dollar so it's not a good position to be in to negotiate yourself the best longer term deal.Also remember if you find a perfect place with a current tenant you may not be in a position to move straight away...a lot of great places already have someone in them and their moving date is unlikely to coincide with your 5 day option. If you are looking at realestate.com to assess the availability of suitable rentals then a word of warning....we did this too and we found that they often forget to remove the listings so while there seems like loads and loads of great rentals on there it isn't actually always the case when you ring up. I don't live in Melbourne so I don't know what it is like but I would say it could be wise to check with other recent Melbourne arrivals to see how long it has taken them to find something and how easy it actually is. If it was me then I would certainly book no less than 2 weeks (and probably more like 3 or 4) in a furnished rental. There are plenty on stayz.com and realestate.com to shop around to get a good price. I would also book car hire for the same period. Giving yourself some time to go and check out not only the rental but to walk around the suburb, have a coffee, look at the facilities/shops and to see if it's not only a house but an area you can happily live in long term. If you do find a longer term option more quickly then it's also nice to have the overlap and to have extra time coming home to a furnished short term while you do the shopping and bargain hunting for the initial furniture and electricals to make your new long term let liveable. Although the initial outlay for a short term rental seems a lot, giving yourself this extra breathing space can help to prevent lots of costly snap decisions - could end up saving you loads more in the long run. I hope your new Melbourne life is lovely! Wow! Thank you so much for the detailed reply, that has really helped. It puts into words all the things which have been running around my head! I'll certainly have another think about our options. I shall report back our experiences! Cheers! xAx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest greengables Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 Hi again No troubles! Just a quick one....there is a thread in the real estate section of this website entitled "comments from a real estate agent I'd like to share" Reading that thread would probably strongly support the argument for booking a short term rental for a longer period of time (say 3 or 4 weeks) Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted August 7, 2009 Share Posted August 7, 2009 Well, we went throught just about every different option you can think of! Immediately upon arrival we spent 3 nights in a luxury hotel--nothing like room service to help with the jet lag! While in the hotel, we hunted about for a "holiday let" rental to give us some time to search for something more permanent. Our first "proper" rental was a furished place for six months. We had a brainstorm and checked with some estate agents who specialised in the university/student market and they had lots of sparsely furnished places on the market. They were a bit surprised but, in the end, I think they were happy to get a family who actually cleaned things and mopped floors. The furnishings in this place were kinda "rough and ready" but enough to live with. We gradually replaced their stuff with our own, shunting the student-type things into a spare room or the garage. We also put our shipment from the UK (only a couple of palettes, not a whole house worth) mainly into storage still packed for easy moving later. We then had six months to consider neighbourhoods and look around at leisure which let us find the "perfect" house. We moved in with the UK shipment, the things we'd gradually bought and used in the student accomodation plus some new bits and pieces that we bought (fridge for example) and specified "moving day" as the delivery day. It all came together and, by the end of day 1 in the permanent place we felt quite settled. Frankly, the six months seemed to fly by and the above worked well for us. We have our 2 year anniversary in Aus next week and all is good. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest destinationoz Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 This has all given lots of food for thought - Thanks all .... just wondered if anyone knew anyone who shipped their stuff (furniture etc) over 4-5 weeks early and survived living with nothing in the UK for a few weeks (but at least in their home town where they could borrow bits from family & friends) meaning their stuff/things/container arrived in Oz soon after they did .... meaning they could rent either a holiday let or furnished property for a few weeks and then find an unfurnished rental within the first 3-4 weeks? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Pom Queen Posted August 9, 2009 Share Posted August 9, 2009 Hiya My Husband & I are having a very similar debate, I am all for going for 4weeks in furnished short term but my husband seems to think that it will take us DAYS to find a longer term solution... We are moving to Melbourne and know that we can't rent without actually physically seeing the property which is fair enough, there seems to be a lot of choice but I am worried that there is also a lot of competition for the apartments available and it will take us longer than we think to get ourselves a longer lease. Does anyone have any advice on how to get an unfurnished apartment quickly? Do you think that say, 5 days in short term is long enough to find somewhere??!! Many thanks xAx Hi I think greengables has summed it up perfectly!!! Unfortunately, there is still a rental shortage in Melbourne and although there seems to be a lot of rentals on realestate you really need to be looking at how many are OFI (Open for Inspection) 99% of agents will not let you view prior to an OFI. At the OFI there are lots of other interested parties turn up and it depends on their suitability as to whom they will choose. It really does depend on the area you are interested in and your budget. If you have $400 plus to spend per week and are willing to live an hour from the CBD then you should be able to find something in a couple of weeks (although again it depends on if there are any properties OFI) These OFI are usually held once and on a Saturday morning, they often clash with another property you want to look at and if you miss the first OFI move on to another property, as it will have gone if not it could be that the property is in a run down area or the house itself is a wreck. So in regards to your 5 days, I don't want to put a dampner on things, but if you arrived on a Sunday, the next OFI for rentals probably won't be available until Saturday, so that is 6 days gone already:yes: Kate:wubclub: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Mr & Mrs Brown Posted August 24, 2009 Share Posted August 24, 2009 Hi Guys I have just come across what looks like an excellent solution for couples migrating to Melbourne. These guys have property all over Melbourne, all around 5-6k from the CBD and offer high end accommodation for professionals and migrants at a very reasonable price. They have private double bedrooms with ensuite and a communal kitchen and living area all fitted out to 5 star level. If you are migrating to melbourne and need a short term let, check them out, I have just booked in for 2weeks (a compromise between 4 and 1) but we can extend with only a weeks notice. :: House Share Vic :: Welcome to House Share VIC We arrive in three weeks so I shall update and share our experiences with them. I hope that it will give us an excellent chance to meet people in a similar situation for us. xAx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Toorak Trev Posted August 25, 2009 Share Posted August 25, 2009 Hi Guys I have just come across what looks like an excellent solution for couples migrating to Melbourne. These guys have property all over Melbourne, all around 5-6k from the CBD and offer high end accommodation for professionals and migrants at a very reasonable price. They have private double bedrooms with ensuite and a communal kitchen and living area all fitted out to 5 star level. If you are migrating to melbourne and need a short term let, check them out, I have just booked in for 2weeks (a compromise between 4 and 1) but we can extend with only a weeks notice. :: House Share Vic :: Welcome to House Share VIC We arrive in three weeks so I shall update and share our experiences with them. I hope that it will give us an excellent chance to meet people in a similar situation for us. xAx They seem to be doing room lets for minimum 3 month stays though? What rate do you pay going only 2 weeks? $380 for double room seems expensive too me - but perhaps its me thinking about families and the need to therefore get at least 2 rooms if you have kids? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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