jerzy

3 months to go until we're on our way and I'm starting to stress over every little detail.

The main one at the moment is accommodation. We plan on renting and have set a budget of around $400 a week for a 3 bed house. I've found plenty on realestate.com.au that would fit the bill, even though I realise we may need to be a bit further out of the city than I'd hoped.

Can anyone tell me what kind of documents the letting agencies will require in the form of references etc.

I don't intend on looking for work immediately so will not have salary slips to show as proof of income. We have saved enough money to live on for 6 months or so, so we will have money in the bank.

DougsYute

when i contacted a letting agent and asked about renting with no job they said as long as you have bankstatements to show you have the money to cover the renting period, then no job is not a problem. other than that they mentioned references from previous landlord. and thats it i think.

try picking one of the properties you like the look of, then e-mailing the estate agent. i found the one i contacted to be most helpful, very different from letting agents i have dealt with in this country!!

good luck.

ABCDiamond

That sounds about right

And if you offer to pay 3 or 6 months rent in advance, I am sure no landlord would refuse you

I should know - I'm a landlord

If you previously owned a house, and have mortgage repayment statements to show, that may be useful, as an alternative to references from previous landlord.

jerzy

Thanks guys.

delboy

hi there ,where are you going?? we are in the same boat as you ,looking ror rented accomodation on the net, can you do it all this end of the world if you do find a place you want to set up ,or do you have to go over and arrange, help will be appreiciated

jerzy

We're heading to Sydney in October.

We've had a look on the net, and some letting agents will work with you this way but having seen the scant details shown on the real estate web sites we've decided to wait until we get there.

We're contemplating employing a relocation firm, anyone any experiences, good or bad.

We're also in the lucky position that we've got friends to stay with when we arrive, although we don't want to outstay our welcome !

I'm a bit concerned about there being little rental property available in November with it being so close to Christmas, in fact I might start a new thread about this

young_lad

Just to add to what ABCDiamond has said. We were asked for 3 months rent upfront as we 'had no history in Australia'.

Also, we thought it was quite odd that they asked for a statement from the estate agents who handled the sale of our property in England to confirm that we sold it in a decent state (cheeky sods).

We didn't provide it - but we provided a statement of our savings account to show we could afford rent for the foreseable future.

And finally, we offered (and was accepted) to pay a little less rent than they were asking for (it was actually a slip of the tongue by the real estate agent which lead to us offering less).

ABCDiamond

When paying 3 months rent up front, getting a lower rent figure should be quite easy. (unless of course there is a rental property shortage at the time)

young_lad

Here in Melbourne I get the impression there is a tenant shortage. When talking to real estate agents many decent enough places that we were looking at had been available for a while and had reduced asking rents but to no avail. There's a fella near us who is having to get rid of his property because he can't find a tenant - and it's a brand new unit. Of course that doesn't prove anything - just my experience.

IMHO, it seems a renters market here and I wouldn't be surprised if some landlords would accept offers on rent regardless of 3 months being paid upfront.

But I do understand where you're coming from ABC, it wouldn't be a good thing for people to think that landlords would accept offers on rent now would it?....

ANA123

We paid 3 months in advance and showed a copy of our bank balance and that was sufficient. The only thing our agent insisted on that could be a problem for some people was the 3 australian based referees. They wouldnt accept anyone from the uk, we had to use an old school friend that I hadnt seen for years and years for the 3rd one but they accepted that, they did follow them all up though.
That said, the agency we used do seem to have been particularly fussy, as we found out when we left the property last week!

ABCDiamond

I agree with that for Melbourne, they were building far to many new units, and selling them "off the plan" !

So renters can really pick and choose now.

I was just reading an old article about it, where it said that of the Capital Cities, only Brisbane and Darwin are undersupplied with new housing stock coming available.

Time for another rent increase up here

young_lad

Just sit back and enjoy those rent rises then ABC!