AlliF

We are planning on selling up and moving a bit closer to the centre of Melbourne (prob closer to the 15km boundary on the eastern side)but we are thinking we want to try before we buy next time and rent in the suburb first.
Previously when we were renting it was just me and hubs and we had no problem finding a decent house (6yrs ago in the Eastern suburbs) but now we have an 18mth toddler in tow.
Anybody here (maybe a landlord/EA or someone who has recently rented somewhere) have any idea if this is going to make a huge impact on our chance of securing a decent rental?
While we want to leave the house we are in I wouldn't want to jump from the frying pan into the fire and end up with nowhere to live.

RedDragon2008

What is your budget?

What sort of housing are you after?

Hebe

I wouldn't say that having a small child in tow would be detrimental to renting, in fact I would say it could be a benefit as you would come across as a nice little family who would be unlikely to cause much noise with late night parties etc

What is your budget, area,etc

AlliF

We are just scouting it out now as wouldn't be putting this house on the market til the beginning of the year and then factor in about 3mths ave to sell and 2 to settle, but we have thoughts of possibly ringwood, wantirna, vermont or something similar. rental - 3bed $400-$500pw.

Where we are has absolutely abysmal public transport - no infrastructure (expensive lesson dont believe it til you see it folks, it just might not happen) so we are going to have to downsize to get something in a better location in our price range. Buying prob $500 or thereabouts.

AlliF

Never looked at it that way. We are very quiet - that is part of the problem round here - the lots of land are just so small so we are all practically in each others laps and the other neighbours are a (very)noisy bunch.
Next door neighbours have a pool table on their patio and a Harley parked on the driveway right next to our bedroom (he roars off to work at 5am on it)
But that was our mistake to make and now we are about to try and rectify it.

Geordie George

We're not in Melbourne (we're in Sydney), but I found it a very different experience trying to rent with small children compared to renting as a couple. We were definitely skipped over for a couple of places, where we'd been the only people with young children at the viewing. They were nicer places - more recently decorated, good quality kitchen and bathrooms. I suspect (but obviously don't know) that the landlord didn't want a toddler in the place - perhaps for fear of the nice decoration being drawn on or something?! We had much more success when we lowered our budget a little, interestingly. Places that hadn't been decorated as recently seemed much more open to toddlers (IOE). And, to be honest, it's much less stressful living with a toddler in something that's not quite a show-home.

AlliF

Good points to consider.
Def dont want to be running round after her all day with a tin of touch-up paint in my hand

Buzzy--Bee

Families with children score highly as tenants. Many landlords invest in the type of property that attracts families. I can't see you having a problem, unless you are looking in areas predominantly populated by couples or singles.

BB

r11

Just arrived to Melbourne two weeks ago and we were able to find a rental with two small children (ages 3 and 6) without major problems.

We originally thought it would be hard to secure a rental because we have no history in Australia and because we have two small children, but we applied for 5 properties and got approved on 4 of them. We asked the property managers and our landlord why they picked us and they both told us a family is much more desirable for many reasons. They see stability, less risk when young tenants break apart, and there's probably not going to be lots of parties and drinking in the property when there's kids. Go figure!

AlliF

Thanks very much for that, good to know/very reassuring. Glad you found something easily.

RedDragon2008

I have noticed over the past 6 to 9 weeks that properties have suddenly remained on the market. Could this be a sign?

A friend moving to the South eastern asia parts for 3 years was originally told $3k+ per week (back in August) they recently had to go and agreed a 12 month lease for $1800 per week.