Hi all,

IF (!!) we are successful in getting our visa, is 4-6 weeks enough time to find and buy a property (mandurah area)?

We are thinking that we may initially just book a "holiday rental" for this time with the prospect on concentrating on looking for a house to buy. How quickly do things move ? Is it like the uk, ie searches, suveyors reports etc, or can you just view and buy??

Any tips and advice greatly appreciated.

Thanks

If this helps........

did a LSD in May 2007 to Sunshine Coast QLD having absolutely no intentions of buying a property but we got swept up in the excitement and this is what happened.....

2 week trip...several house viewings...FIRB approval requested in order to buy a property as we were not residents (had not even submitted application for visa).....Mortgage approved at NAB no questions asked as long as we could come up with a 20% deposit.Signed an offer to purchase on 28th May,returned to South Africa 30th May,FIRB approval 10th June........transfer complete 30th June........so yes,that was 4 weeks so it can be done for sure.

How do you know you want to be in Mandurah? What if your work is in Joondalup? Or near the airport? That's a good 2 hour commute every day.

Quite honestly, you are much better off to rent for 6 months to a year to get a feel for the area, find work, see if you even like living in Australia before you sink $$ into a house.

Totally agree. Give it some time before you jump in with huge potential financial impact if you don't like the area.

Arriving here and then buying straight away is a very bad idea. If you don't like the area/neighbours you are severely stuffed.

Hi,
Please take everyone's advice, come over and have a look around the areas before you buy, what you see on the internet and other peoples opinions dont always match up to your criteria.
People that have stayed with us usually stay around 4 weeks this gives them an opportunity to have a look around areas, schools, employment etc then go onto find longer term rental. Some people can do it in 2 weeks, but speaking from previous personal experience 4 weeks would give you a little more flexability and not push you into making a drastic decision.
Look at www.ourbrisbane.com.au this will help with suburbs, facilities, education etc also for map reference and time scales try www.whereisit.com.au
Some rental sites:- www.ozrentals.com.au www.domain.com.au www.stayz.com.au
Good luck with everything

We had to buy as we have 4 dogs, so couldn't get a rental as such, found a house in about 2 weeks and the whole process took 6 weeks (we held it up for 2 weeks) so it could of been ours in 4. The house was empty.