Paul Wildy

Yes, as Tuppence says the realtors in question (Jerry & Annette Murphy) live in Fall River, specifically on Perry Lake (know locally to many as Perry Pond as it isnt really a proper lake) in the Fall River Village subdivision. So its probably not entirely coincidence that the majority of people who go through them end up buying in Fall River Village. Perhaps thats why property prices in Fall River went up by 23% in the last year - roughly double the increase for greater Halifax as a whole.

In fact I heard someone say they were selling raffle tickets there the other week and on some roads (like Canterbury) almost every door they knocked on turned out to be British. Ironically most of them probably dont realise as not ever talking to your neighbours is one of the great British skills.

Lol4874

What does "Don't like the smell of rats much" mean? You may not like salespersons, realtors, consultants etc, your choice, but to be deliberately rude and insulting can cause unwarranted distress and anxiety, and possibly a lawyers letter. Mike and Orla are in business but I find them keen and enthusiastic, with good advice and contacts and there is no hard-sell.

Nicola N-A

In response to Lol4874, it was a personal opinion about their business. I have met Orla and found her to be a very nice and helpful lady. However, with such a beautiful province - the 'smell of rat' I referred to was that they seemed to want to 'group' all Brits in one place. If they are only selling one area then that should be made apparent. Have you not noticed the amount of people that think Fall River is the only place that Brits can get by in ? I just think that it is unfair to 'lead' people to one specific place that suits your needs and not those of the people you are 'helping'.

I do not think I have been rude, deliberately or otherwise, nor have I been insulting. For information purposes, I do not have a problem with people selling things (everyone has to earn a living) nor do I have a problem with realtors.

Everyone should be given the opportunity to make their own decisions and as such should have as much information as possible not just one point of view.

l i s a

In fact I heard someone say they were selling raffle tickets there the other week and on some roads (like Canterbury) almost every door they knocked on turned out to be British. Ironically most of them probably dont realise as not ever talking to your neighbours is one of the great British skills.[/QUOTE]

Hi Paul

I believe there are 4 British families on Canterbury and my neighbours, to whom I have spoken, are from Vancouver, Calgary, Texas, Germany and Lebanon

Halifax harpie

Bit aggressive for a first post isn't it? I just wonder what interest you have in this too? Everyone using this forum has the right to express their own opinions. That's one of the good things about it, people can hear both sides of the story.

Snort

You know perhaps I am feeling awnry because ive just had a hard days work packing the last of my house into a 20ft container and waving goodbye to it as it heads for our house (temp rental ) in fall river and I should feel realy excited about this, but i dont maybe its the sheer exhaustion I feel after taking the last 2 weeks to pack my belongings, carefully itemising each box with its contents and value and ensuring the whole move works with military precision, well it did.

Maybe it will take a day or two to sink in but today we passed the point of no return.

No I think what annoyed me is some of the responses to this post. From people who havnt used the services of UK2novascotia.

We used Anglo Pacific to ship our goods today, as reccomended by UK2novascotia inclusive of their discount, and what a very proffesional team they were, what kick back UK2novascotia get from Anglo Pacific I dont know or care about, their service and advice to me was FREE, and it was very gratefully received.

Our realtors are Jerry and Annette, but only after other realtors didnt seem to have a clue as to our needs as immigrants, I have made it very clear to Jerry what types of property we are looking at, and his first suggestion to me was Hammonds plains, however after we explained that we had based our search around the schools we wanted our kids to go into having extensively researched it on our recce, we said we wanted to concentrate on Bedford and fall river, by the way brits seem to choose fall river because it gives them everything they cant get in the UK, Land, great houses, peace and quiet, and lakes. Not to mention easy access to the international airport where a good percentage of us recent immigrants are going to be working.

Jerry is meeting us the morning after we land to start working on our plan to get our own house within 4 weeks, this is after he arranged for our mortgage advisor to meet us at the house an hour earlier. He has 6 houses for us to view on that day before he and his wife attend our party in the evening. I have checked them out through various sources I have on the island, and surprise they won the Innovation for industry award, and most succesfull realtor business awards, as well as coming with personnall reccomendations from several VERY GOOD friends of mine already on the island. Come on Guys I am about to depart with my lifes savings on a house in Nova Scotia, do you realy think I wouldnt check out our realtor before hand!!!! The fact that he and his wife are reccommended by UK2novascotia is because they are the best!!!!! and they have experience in dealing with UK immigrants. Personnally I dont know if they get a kick back from the realtors, I imagine they probaberly do, and good luck to them for having a living. But their services and advice to me their customer are cost FREE, and so far it has proven to be top notch advice as well.

Oh by the way did I not mention, the temp rental accomodation we have for the first 2 months, (which is incredibly difficult to find for a family of five,) was due to a phone call to mike who mentioned after hearing my frustration with finding somewhere to live for 5 of us that he was just about to put an add on their site for a rental by another guy from the UK who is moving out in the summer, I looked at the site saw the rental it ticked all of my boxes and booked it that day for 2 months.

Mike and Orla are people people they are succesfull in that they care for their clients, they are also cost free to those clients. If they make a living from those businesses they reccomend all well and good to them.

Guys and Gals I dont usually rant :curse:like this but I replied honestly to someones request for information about UK2novascotia having given my honest opinion alongside most of the other positive opinions on this thread I was slightly pi**ed that someone assumed we are naive, well I didnt get off the boat yesterday pal and I have travelled the world extensivelly, the last thing I am is naive.

Personnally I am more of a cup half full person, and wont slag anyone without positive proof they are linked with the mafiosa

destinationnovascotia

You obviously know what you want and you did the right thing for you.

I met Annette. and as I said before, she seemed very nice. However, no realtor is right for everyone.

The best advice in my opinion is to meet a few and choose for yourself. Someone who is on your wavelength and gets where you are coming from. In my case this was not Annette, that doesn't meant that she is not successful in her job, or that she isn't the right person for someone else.

My only gripe was the reaction I got from Mike when I told him I was using another realtor. I hadn't said that I wasn't interested in any of his recommendations, just that one.

I am sure that people benefit from their service. Whether individuals can obtain deals as good individually as they can others will be able to answer better than me.

All I know is that there is a wealth of information out there and I have heard what Mike has to say and I will bear it in mind. However, I will never take the recommendation of one person without researching it myself. Perhaps I am just a control freak and others are perfectly happy to let someone else do the leg work. If that is what they want, thats fine. I just reserve the right to do things my way.

Tuppence

I think that is exactly why a lot of people choose it.

After being about 3 feet away from my neighbours in the UK, I couldn't wait to own a couple of acres and have my own space (I own some trees ), but also be within an easy commute of decent job opportunities.

Paul Wildy

Well I dont blame you at all for being a little highly-strung after packing for 2 weeks! But I don't think anyone actually said you were being naive did they? The main thrust of my own post was really that nobody should just use the first realtor that was put in front of them and to make sure you meet at least 3 before deciding and, from what you say, you did meet others. And I didnt slag anyone off (but maybe you were referring to that other "rats" comment by someone else) but I do think its important that you know if realtors tend to have a bias towards a particular area.

Personally I'm more of an all cards on the table person, and like to make sure everyone is given a balanced view of how things are.

By the way, you do realise Nova Scotia isn't an island don't you? Have a look at http://nsonline.com/maps/. Do you see that little bit of land near Amherst that connects it to New Brunswick (just past the recently highly publicised North Shore).

Southcote

We have been in touch with both Mike & Orla, and Jerry & Annette. To be honest, we have found them all to be very helpful, and have offered a balanced view. Annette showed us around some houses in Hammonds Plain, and she also showed us around a house a couple of doors away from her own. This says something to me - would she really let you view a house so close to her own if she had anything to hide ? (something about not sh*****g on your own doorstep !). Annette also put my in touch with a member of her family about a possible job.

Mike & Orla have been great. They found us a great house to rent in Mount Uniake that was just perfect for our holiday, and have found me 3 contacts about possible jobs that would have been very difficult for me to find whilst in the UK.

I'm pleased I have spoken to them all, I feel they have assisted us greatly and whilst I accept others may have different views, they have never charged me a penny. I'm coming back out to Halifax in a few weeks time, and have arrange to meet up with Annette and Mike and Orla as the advice they have given us so far has been well worth listening to.

Snort

LOL sorry if I came accross as aggresive but as you said I am a tad stressed at the moment.

We are very well aware that Jerry and Annette specialise in Fall River, but we also are aware that they have experience with UK immigrants and as such seemed much more attuned to things we might not be aware of. What impressed me was the fact that he wasnt trying to quick sell us the first property we suggested, infact after giving him a list of 25 we had looked at on MLS he came back with the problem properties and also reccomendations as to which of our choices were good choices and the reasons why. As it happens none of those first 25 are available anymore, apart from 1 which has been on MLS for about 9 months now. (Very near the highway) so we sent him another 20 to check out for us, he is arranging visits as previously aluded to to check these out.

We have checked out 5 other realtors, but Jerry and Annette came out tops.

Yes sorry I know its not realy an island but I am realy tired atm and it must have slipped out. (still looks island ish) I promise to explore the North shore at the earliest oppertunity, but my work is at the Airport, and all of my friends live in the Halifax region, ie Dartmouth,Bedford,Lower Sackville,Downtown Halifax. So I aim to live in that area too.

j42

Excellent thankyou

destinationnovascotia

I know exactly where you are coming from.

The "island" word has slipped by my lips on occasions - why is that do you think?. Maybe it comes from living on an island for so long and holidaying on so many.

Poppy2

Well I wish you lots of luck Snort - know exactly how you are feeling right now! And from the other side of the move with a family of 5, by a mere 3 days, let me tell you there is light at the end of the tunnel! Though still struggling with 3 children who insist on waking at 4.30 each morning and dementing us! But no time for *nanna naps*.

We have previously emigrated to another country without any help and we are being offered lots of unsolicited help right now, which slightly irks the independent spirits that we are - though 1 :5 reccomendations are actually proving useful. I am not talking about Mike or Orla, I have never met them and have never approached anyone like them in this process. It makes me feel a little sad that maybe people seek out that level of support because they fear being fleeced because they are seen as foreign cash cows - I am sure that is a strong over simplification of what people have said in this thread, but I am profoundly jet lagged and waiting for a bacon sandwhich that is long overdue! The move involves so many things that require outside agencies and of course we all want to know that someone can personally recommend a company or professional, that removes some of the needle in a hay stack fear that we all have. I do think that there is a lot more to the move than the practical aspects, there is an element of adjusting the move, assimilating and becoming part of the community. There is a long settlement period in my previous experience and that is totally normal - I would like to think that these emigration agencies also support that aspect too. And the answer, for me, isnt getting british people together or encouraging a little enclave of expats to form. Having said all that, we havent even been out to have a look round as the snow kept us to pottering round Halifax these past few days. We wouldnt be looking to buy there anyway as our few pennies wouldnt stretch that far , so it will be a *double wide* somewhere terribly disreputable for us!

Anyway, bacon wrapped in bread has appeared, so off to taste Canadian bacon for the first time. Good luck with the rest of the move Snort - it sounds like you are terribly organised and totally making a good job of the relocation.

destinationnovascotia

You online already Rachel? That didn't take you long.

Might have known that you would prioritise the computer over the house.