Carbery

Spot on advice. It takes time (9 months in our case) and a lot of legwork to find the right business to meet you and your families needs. We spent days sat outside potential businesses watching customer flow, checking the areas, looking at changes in infrastructure in the area etc. If you do decide on a business make sure a clause put in the contract of sale is 'subject to Due Dilligence' - this gives you access to all the accounts, BAS returns, tax returns of the vendor and his business for a specified period (should be at least 4 years). An accountant will then go through all the figures and tell you if the profit claimed is resonable. If it is not you can pull out or make an offer based on the actual profit. If this clause is not inserted you will have to take the vendors word for the claimed profit.

welshviking

Wow guys, thanks for all the info negative and positive..


We've been planning on buying a caravan park for over a year now, by trade we're aircraft mechanics, so a bit of a change.

We've checked out lots of places on the net, got the prospectus' and researched the areas, still not dead set on one yet. We're arriving next month and through one of the brokerage companies going on a 2 day seminar for first timers like ourselves. We have thought about getting jobs in this area if we have to, I have done this job before when I had a year work visa.

But as for bank loans it seems like a mixed bag, and there can be lots of reasons for the banks to say no or yes, we'll only have the cash from our house, but we're hoping that with the backup of our trades we can always fall back on those for cash if we need.


Of course we're really scared, but we are confident because we've done so much research, and incredibly excited because of the lifestyle and ideas we want to achieve, and it is possible!!

I loved the story of staking-out the business!! That's hilarious, I pictured you dressed in a long mac, hat glasses and fake moustache.

Please keep the info coming

DrWho

Good luck to you...

The step father of one of our mates owns, I believe, 2 or 3 of the Big4 parks; he buys and sells them as well - looks to get ones where it's all gone wrong and turns them around before flogging them off... Made some serious money doing it too. Spends most of his time at his main place on the NSW south coast and then does 3 months a year at his holiday place up Noosa way...

welshviking

ooooo!!

Well we'll be starting off with something small...but one day you never know maybe we'll have a hug resort.....

All welcome to visit of course!

We were thinking of buying some kind of trailer to use to live in while we're driving around and hopefully save the cost of bunking down somewhere every night, and then we can use it in the park afterwards.

It is tricky though, finding the right business, area, market.

DrWho

Business Buying

Simply excellent... They only ever act for the purchaser - it's good to have someone looking after your back when you're in a strange land... No matter how much you think you'll be OK there's stuff you just won't know...

welshviking

Thanks for that,

I'm worrying more about the bank loan though to be honest.

If they say no that that's that, we found a sort of comparison site for banks, any reccomendations for particular banks from anyone?

DrWho

To be honest, getting a bank loan without any kind of history over here is going to be a monumental challenge... I thought i would get one no probs with having owned and run a business in the UK with a $20m turnover but it proved to be so difficult that in the end I gave up and sourced funds elsewhere...

Carbery

Have to disagree there. When eventually we found the business we wanted to buy it was not too difficult. True we were only borrowing 50% of the purchase price and we did have it secured on an asset but it is possible. We chose ANZ business centres as the most knowledgeable and helpful and found the CBA the most stand offish and not really interested.

welshviking

Well I've heard of other non nationals, from an accountant, going in for the same kind of business and having no major probs, we'll be stumping up about 50% too.

OK I'll check out more with ANZ, as I was going to go wit CBA as I had a previous account with them.


Thanks guys it's all very helpful

Nix and Mike

The answer to this question depends on your risk profile, and I have to say that you have to go with your gut instinct on this one.
I do not agree with the posts above that say you are making a big change already, don't make another before settling.
We moved from successful corporate careers in late 2000 to move to a country with a different culture, different langauge, different business ethic (AND 18 months before I gave birth to my first and only child!) and we moved into a COMPLETELY different business that we had no experience in.
Whilst difficult, it was the best thing we ever did.......

If it feels right, do it!
If you feel "funny in your tummy" about it for whatever reason, do something a little more conservative. The answers you are looking for are usually right inside you, you just need to learn to trust your instinct. We usually over-analyse things too much (and I am also to blame for this!) that we muddle the thinking and loose sight of what our instincts are telling us !

Nix

DrWho

Weird We didn't want to borrow anything for the purchase, just have a small overdraft for daily running purposes and Westpac just weren't interested at all... Then they immediately handed out a $30k credit card, no fuss...! Maybe I'll take a wander down to ANZ one day...