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Hi good peeps

A question from me:

Just wondered how many of you who have moved to Canada actually used the services of a relocation company to assist with your settlement in your chosen province or did you do the whole thing yourself.
I know there are a few listed but am really wondering whether it is something worth considering or whether just to do it all myself.
We will be heading to the Okanagan BTW.

iaink

I dont think you have to do it all yourself, many realtors bend over backwards to help, and basically do a lot of the stuff the relocators do, only for free. Most of the other stuff, interaction with government and the like ...SIN, health card, Drivers license etc is pretty painless anyway.

If someone else is going to pay for it, then it might be worth investigating the services, but otherwise I dont see the point, there are a lot of free resources out there to help.

Souvenir

What iaink said. A re-locator can't really do anything for you, just tell you what you need to do. Take a second to consider the wealth of information and local knowledge that is available to you in this forum (free and we're not getting any back-handers).

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Thanks Souvenir and Iaink, the money's in the post.

I thought that the majority would say as you have both said and i see no reason not to do it myself, but curious to who have used these companies and what they felt about the service and whether in the long run it was worth it.

Butch Cassidy

I did it all myself and if I was going to do it again I would DEFINITELY use a relocator.

Now please excuse me while I go feed my pet unicorn.

Regards
Sasquatch.

BH PNP

I do understand the skeptisism (and this is genuinely not a plug) but more to give the facts. As an example, MovingToCanada relocators and settlement consultants (1) In most cases do not charge the client and (2) try to offer a broader range of services. For example, we source car rental and car purchase discounts that are far better than Jo Blogs can walk in and get. We have negotiated better insurance rates (car and home) than "Jo" would normally get, as realtors we work over a broader area and not tied to the brokerages "circle" that limits the choice that the client is exposed to, we help orientate, we help with the "just landed" administrative tasks.... whatever is needed, the list is endless.

Relocation "specialists", in most cases, generally do try to offer a service, a good service. Nobody is forced to used us........ in fact no different than immigration consultants in that regard.

Rich_007

I did it all myself and if I was going to do it again I would DEFINITELY NOT use a relocator. Mucho personal satisfaction to be gleaned from doing it yourself, providing one is organized and confident.

Rich.

Butch Cassidy

(1) If you dont charge the client how do you make a living.
(2) I'm sick of this BS about buyers dont pay the Realtor. Who is actually handing the money over in the first place? Wether directly or indirectly the money comes from the buyer not the Freaking Vendor.

Rant over.

Souvenir

We've used relocation companies twice. The first time was when we came to Canada; the second was for our move from Oakville to Gatineau. Admittedly, our situation was slightly different as the moves were corporate (OK military) relocations, although private sector relocation companies handled each of them. On both occasions there was an awful lot of red tape and paperwork. An awful lot.

On the plus side, the companies are well-aware of the value of corporate/government contracts (Royal LePage, who did our last move, handles 14,000 government relocations each year) and want to keep them. As a result, they are careful not to attract complaints. The packers/movers were very, very careful with our stuff. Not quite to the extent that each book was bubble-wrapped but not far off.

dbd33

We're about to move, admittedly not between countries, but far enough that I'd think the issues to be similar. Reading that there are specialists in arranging moves makes me wonder if I've missed something crucially important as I seem to have been able to do it all by internet without a great deal of bother; even redirecting the mail can be done from a web browser. What I think is needed is a good task list; one's posted here from time to time, and the persistance to slog through it.

Souvenir

I wouldn't dream of using my own money for one. The only real benefit, in my opinion, comes from their expertise in the physical shifting of your stuff from A to B. But then again, any decent moving company can do that.

I can't really complain, though. Our two relocations have saved us a fortune.

printer

That's the problem with this subject it throws up various opinions of relocation companies.
We are of course using a removals company to pack, ship, store if necessary and unpack all our goods so the shifting stuff from A to B will be taken care of.
However you often see adverts for these relocation companies where they are specifically advertising the fact that they can help you settle in your chosen province and assist you with all the necessary things that will be needed both prior to arriving and once there. I assume the sorts of things are helping with school/college enrollment, rental accomodation, bank accounts, etc. Most of which i guess is not a problem to do yourself with perhaps the help of a good Realtor.