Originally Posted by carolinegorka

About bloody time !!
Cas x

Originally Posted by arnie2oz

Just to let those who know we've been trying to sell for a few months now that we exchanged contracts on Friday (no joke!) and the UK house minder has a lot to do in the next week before we get our hands on the cash.

Now we have the different stress involved in buying a house / boat/ car in Oz!

Just one drink should set me up - Cheers

Good luck with yours Moneypen! Artep is also close to the end (not edge!)

Originally Posted by artep

Nice one Graham!!! Sorry my congrats are a bit late....been away..

You must be relieved it's finally sold!!!!!

Petra

Originally Posted by arnie2oz

Hi Paul

In answer to your questions:
The house was on the market before we came to Oz; we hoped to have sold it before we left but it didn't. So we came here just after Christmas having left family memebers as house-sitters and Powers of Attorney in place, to handle the sale.

We were always in contact by email & telephone with Solicitors, Estate Agents, and the family. The hardest thing to deal with was the mis-information from the Estate Agent relating to the expected timing of things, and dealing with planning the sale/disposal of furniture - which is still ongoing.

Neither of us came into well paid jobs (if your uk income is say £30000pa then expect your Oz income to be around $30000 maybe a bit more) in fact we hadn't had a summer holiday in 2004 so took time off to relax between sorting out rental property, furniture, bank accounts, medibank & tax office stuff, Queensland driving licences, buying furniture, car, tools & equipment (lawnmower etc) learning about pool maintenance, finding our way around, settling Hayley in a new school, dealing with UK banks at a distance :scared: getting broadband, new laptop, and fans to keep us cool aat night, meeting other expats and doing a few tourist things before our first visitors arrived to stay! Nikki started work 3 weeks ago (Phew!)

How much did it cost? Loads of £$£$£$. You can spend as much as you feel comfortable with - it really depends on what you want and how big your family is. Nice 3/4 bed houses can be rented for 6 months for $300-$350 but there are smaller and bigger ones for less/more, and price determines location.

We rented a serviced apartment in Brisbane for our first 2 weeks, booked from the uk to use as a base. It cost about £400 a week for 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, lounge & Kitchen, secure car parking and use of pool. We also booked a hire car for that 2 weeks and in that time bought a 2nd hand runaround which Nikki now uses to drive to work.

Hope this helps; what's your situation?