Its your age mate

im 43 this year. i rmbr my dad that old. i thought he was nearly deed lol

I know what you mean, when I were a wee lass I remember my mum and dad talking about listening to Elvis and the Beatles etc, and thinking how on earth can you remember THAT far back, I mean that was the really really olden days of penny farthings and sixpence ha'penny, and it was only 20 years previous. Yet now, when I look back 20 years and remember what I was listening to ie, Wham, Bananarama, Boy George, and the great Dexys Midnight Runners etc, it only seems like yesterday.

Oh no I'm turning into my mum

lmao, that when u know your old he he he , dont worry about it, u will forget it in the morn lol

Hi Wheezy

I guess our initial rental thoughts were upto $500 pw, but would prefer $350ish.

So where can I get a 3 bed house in good family area for that sort of money.

I do like your hubby's way of getting to work, short journey on the ferry, nice...

I have started looking at Lane Cove, Hunters Hill these seem to be good family areas, but a little pricey.

http://www.domain.com.au

http://www.domain.com.au/Public/SearchResults.aspx?mode=rent&State=NSW&Areas=North +Shore+-+Lower&Sub=Lane+Cove&ssubs=1&Bedrooms=>3&From=0&To =0&proptypes=H,S,X,T&ptdes=Houses

http://tinyurl.com/

Use it, love it, stroke it.

The rental prices on that site - are those per week or per month ? ? ?

per night lol
nah per week

What do people think about Woongarrah, what's it like, where etc,etc

Basically AVJENNINGS whom we visited some of their builds in QLD, also have developments in Sydney, and we do like some of them.

Try also www.justlisted.com.au - goes without saying the nearer to the city you are the more you'll pay in rent. Having said that, there are always bargains to be had, you just have to look hard for them. I know a couple who have rented a 3 bed place in Mosman for just under $500 per week, exceptional, I know, but like I said you just have to keep your eye out. And don't forget to haggle over the rent, it is done over here and imo the norm'.

Rental properties seem to be plentiful at the moment, with January and September being the busiest times for rental agents as, apparently thats when all the expats seem to make the big move. So if you are heading over here outside these times you should have a better choice.

Good luck

Louise

also, pay a visit to the agents and tell them to keep an eye on what your looking for. tell them u want a call as soon as they know a house might be up for rent soon, pester the hell out of them till u get what u want. i rmbr reading a post on here a while ago saying rentals went on the net last.
good luck everyone house hunting

Hi there...

I couldn't resist adding agreement with Wheezy's comments, having just finished the pursuit for a rental house...!!

We moved over to Sydney in June & looked at houses in April on a pre-visit over here & also,over the past few weeks since our arrival. Wheezy's advice about deciding on the lifestyle that you want is absolutely spot on! Despite having visited Australia many times & having done loads of research on realestate.com etc. we have realised quite quickly that Sydney is more expensive than we'd anticipated (and seems more pricy than other parts of Oz for property) & you just don't know what you're actually getting until you actually see the houses for themselves...

We have viewed loads of houses ranging from $700 to $2000 per week all over Eastern Suburbs & North Shore. rental price is definitely not a benchmark for quality, in my experience. Some really awful properties were charging ridiculously high rental & yet others, which were OK were really low...We have been surprised how difficult it has been to find a property that is suitable... Once we thought about the lifestyle factor & whether we wanted a house on the beach with a bit more space or to be closer to the city, it made the decision much easier! But it took us 30 house viewings to decide that! Schools are definitely a factor - we found a school that we liked for our 6 year old boy & worked around that really... We actually used a relocation agent, who showed us different areas around Sydney to start with so we could get a feel for areas but we actually ended up finding our house by ourselves in the end!

In the UK, my husband commuted from Surrey into London - 3 & a half hours a day so anything less than an hour for him is bliss! Consequently, we have ended up on the Northern beaches in Collaroy, near son's school with a 45 min commute into CBD. In the UK, we lived in the middle of nowhere so this seems a good compromise to ease ourselves back into city life !!!!

I made life quite difficult for myself, by comparing every house I saw to what we had in the UK or to what I had imagined we would live in before I came here. If I were to give one tip amongst all this rambling, it would be to forget comparing what you can get to anything you had before & just go for whichever, best suits your reason for coming here in the first place i.e. lifestyle or whatever else... For us, the parameters were family house, some garden if poss. & near the beach with no more than a 45 min. commute to CBD. We also felt that we wanted to rent where we thought we could also afford to buy later, so that was another factor in our decision...

I wish you much luck with your house search anyway & if you have any other questions, feel free to ask!!!

Michele

another great post on this thread. hope it make people think more before they get here.
we had all our plans set out before we got here, after 2 or 3 days driving about it all changed. my best tip is to get a car in the first week and get out and about and find the dream house before u make the wrong move