Sugo

Just spent the last two days looking for somewhere to live in melbourne and im already feeling shi*ty.

Everyplace we enquire about has either gone already, or they cant tell us when there will be a viewing time or day.

The ones that say 'keys are in the office' are awful.

Start work on Monday and we are staying with friends out in Berwick. Work shifts as a nurse 7am starts, takes 2 hours to get into city via public transport. Im totally screwed.

rant over

on the good side melbourne is lovely the weather is warm, even though ozzies are walking around in hat and gloves.

Also most people in shops have been well friendly.

Anyone got tips on finding a place, the letting agents are a nightmare. never get past the receptionist, who never seems to give a sh*t.

We have all our references and application forms. Just wish we had a car, its hard getting it all done on foot.

C&R

Which area are you planning on moving to?
Have you tried Run Propertys?

Ian & Sharon

My cousin in moving up to Brisbane, her husband is living with us now he got his dream job working for 888 racing. They are going to put their house up for rent in the next couple of weeks, its in South Frankston.
Its a 3 bedroom with rather a nice deck

They have been told that they would get upwords of $350 pw so I guess that will be about the rate!

If your interested let me know.

Ian

Sagacity

Offer 6 months' rent in advance. Write that on top of your application in BIG letters and follow it up with the call to the renting agent, reiterating your keenness and the fact that you want to pay cash for the first six months. Works like a charm.

Sugo

Hey thanks for that but i think looking at the tenancy laws thats illegal, shouldnt have to pay more than a month in arrears.

Anyway panic over, saw a nice place today 350pw, got our applications in and all the supporting info and we are hopefully going to be successful will post a main thread about it.

Sagacity

It's not illegal to pay far in advance. It would be illegal to require that as part of the tenancy agreement though.

The howellers

Hi there!
We are moving to melbourne in jan. How can we get references when we havent lived there before? any tips/hints would be much appreciated!! got a 3 year old, so are worried we will be walking around homeless!!!
Tracey.xx

Buzzy--Bee

Tracey, if you can get references from the UK that will be a good start. If you haven't rented recently, evidence that you have paid your mortgage responsibly will help greatly. Personal references help too, as would a work reference if you have one, and a bank reference if you have one. Basically any document that would lead a landlord to believe you were a good risk.

Buzzy

herrchook

Totally agree with everything Buzzy has recommended. We also included the estate agent schedule of our house we sold in the UK and a copy of the solicitors letter showing how much it sold for.

We panicked a bit when we first started looking at houses to rent but actually got one reasonably quickly. We got the keys yesterday and it's fab (brand new, 5 bed plus rumpus and study all for $340pw). We found the best way to get in first was to be able to inspect during the week.

We did some weekend inspections and there were several families all viewing at the same time but when we did them mid week it was mich quieter. We were actually the first to se the house we got as it came on the market on the Monday morning and we saw it at 11am. The ea had our application and had already called our refereneces by 3pm.

Good luck when you get here.

Sugo

Hey what suburb is your place in?

We did provide a false referree on our application. We couldnt track down one of my previous lanlords so we got a mate who is a professional to do a reference for us. We also included work references, character references from friends and work mates. You could even get your vicar to do one if he/she knows you.

Dont think they even asked for our previous lanlords refernces, they just wanted 3 references each person.

You need to provide an application form for each person over 18 i think, not sure if you need different refs each, I would guess not, as long as your name is on them.

Our agent called our refs in New Zealand for the reference even though we had them on paper so take contact details with them.

Good luck. I think its not as bad as people make out. But we did go hard at it looking for a place for 3 days, we saw 5 places i think and got our one on the 3rd. It would be hard to do it with a kid. We also had to split up as many houses to view had inspection times around 1700-1800 in only a 15 min opening time. Tues/Weds/Thurs and some on the weekends.

The howellers

Thanks for all the replys guys! we are not using an agent to sell our house so that is out, and the last time we rented was1991 so landlord ref probably out too! Will have to make do with mortgage statements andwork refs
Thanks again!! Traceyxx