StraighttothePoint

Another reason as to why it will be near impossible to crack in four weeks. Scot01 is right. If you have kids at school age, you do not say, then you probably need to consider the education issue as well. Information for that will be in the stuff I send you if you get back in touch.

It was me I think, among others, that challenged the fish and chip shop guy in relation to his proposed business model. It was also the fact that he was in NZ with the idea and that it would be better to be here to plan it. The Perth market is a strange one, and nothing like the UK market place, and so you need to really be careful what you get into over here. Also takes ages to set up some things here because everything takes so log to process, e.g. council agreements, shop leases, signage etc. You will note that the fish and chip guy has not been back on saying "thanks for the advice and I am opening up soon"...... Every picture tells a story. In short the type of shops you talk about are here. There are several scattered over a few suburbs. There are the British franchise shops, traditional sweets and fairy cake shops and also some markets, e.g. Kalamunda, with stalls that sell similar. I would not step inside one of these shops or buy anything but many folk would so the challenge with anything like this type of idea is you would have a limited custom base because of the split views. Nots ure whwre you are in terms of running a business or starting one up, you may have a lot of experience but a limited customer base can result in big business risk. It does not matter what the products or services are it will all be down to can you sell enough to run a successful and profitable business. (Simply type the following into Google search and you will get some ideas on the competition - there is a lot. british sweet shop perth and then cup cake shop perth - you will see from the information there the types of products that are being sold.) So yes there will be a market but there also will be a lot of competition if you choose the wrong area to set up in. To be honest the only way to really give yourself a chance is to be here, undertake all the basic market research here, create your draft business plan and then decide. I am sure you will see that having a business idea is one thing but the reality of doing it is another. I have set up two small businesses here in Perth and with both it was tough going, much tougher than setting up in the UK in my experience. Do not want to come across as a party pooper but it is just that I am a pragmatist when it comes to business set ups. Ideas are great, keep having them we all do, but as I say being here will answer a lot more for you.

Crips with that budget you could be positioned virtually anywhere, apart from a few suburbs, between Mandurah and Yanchep and get that type of house. The specification you list is common as muck over here. You should, given your flight date, consider just booking temporary accommodation for arrival and look when you get here. You will have little chance of solving that problem in four weeks. Send me a private message with your e-mail address and I will send you some relevant information on suburbs, housing and costs.

We bought old as well and have upgraded over the years. Sure you know this but over capitalising could fast become a problem here if the market turns and heads south. Luckily although we have spent a good bit on pool, patio, new ensuite to create granny flat, main kitchen upgrade, bathroom and ensuite upgrades we are still quids in. Only because we bought before the maelstrom that was the boom of 2005 to 2011. I am just glad we are not looking at buying in the middle of that period or again now and having to do all that because I just feel that there is not as much growth in the market as their has been. It must be really hard to know where the best place is to buy in terms of if you wanted to buy your first home and sell and move on within a few years, how much to spend on renovations without over capitalising, where to stop uin terms of upgrades and so on. I know that here in Joondalup, because of the big block sizes, that 4x2's that need a lot of work done on them can go for around the $500k mark, more. Probably due to local facilities and access to train line and freeway I guess. But at that price if you have to add a pool as many folk want to do, upgrade old style kitchens and bathrooms, then do garden make overs, pool landscaping and so on then you will be up or over the $600k mark easily. Then add on selling and buying fees of circa $30k to $40k if you wanted to move and then you really have to ask yourself would a property like that sell in a few years time for over $650k, nearly $700k? If you wanted to recoup that is and clear any debt and/or investments in the property. Not sure if that is possible and if the market turns then I would have thought no chance. Mind you that example does not need to be Joondalup it could be many suburbs mentioned on these threads. Is it the case that folk are coming here, jumping into the owners market and just taking a chance that property values will just keep going up? Risky strategy. Or is it a case of just buying and not moving? I do not know just thinking out loud I guess.

I must live in another world..... Reality City.... Anyway I digress. How many new Indian restruants have opened up in Perth and the burbs in the last two years? Blooming hundreds. What is that all about?

Is that the same game as the British and Irish Lions tour team are playing in?

Good on ya.... Enjoy the night out.

Blimey that's a lot, sure that the name of the place is not an anagram!! Two words, first word U.... Second word three letters, first letter N... It would need to be a special event at that price, divorce, or something really worthwhile like that. Hope the after party is worth it!! My wife was over the moon last week when we went out, happy as larry, delirious in fact. It was the first time in nearly six months that I took her somewhere an Entertainment Book voucher was not involved. She thought I had won the pools.

If you want cheap you will get cheap here that's for sure....... However 20k is not a mile off what folk around us have been paying recently for renos in their bathrooms The ones here in Joondalup have been paying between $15k and $20k so that seems market rates for a full strip out and refurb. What I did was ripped everything out myself and project managed the jobs myself, i.e. I purchased the new items and materials and then organised the trades. My new ensuite doing it that way cost me $8k and my main bathroom and WC circa $5k. If you have the time and knowledge worth considering. Jobs both turned out great and not at nearly $40k which I was quoted for both. Also for the kitchen we did not go for a brand new kitchen but a make over, i.e. kept all the kithen unit carcasses, only put on new doors and a workbench and the kitchen guy organised the plumber to fit the new sink and gas hob. Cost us $6k versus $16k for that and looked fine. Then again we managed the tiler and sparky for the other minor bits which was another couple of grand. Again huge savings. If however you feel you cannot go down that route then all quotes will be Perth prices. It is what it is.....

Yep I agree there are a lot of good wines in there but the better quality wines that they stock can be found a lot beter priced elsewhere. Like you I have been here a long time and the market here is weird. You get sucked in at the low end and then they get you to buy other stuff where they make the profit. DM's is just another example of how the big boys con us into doing that. DM's is not really competition is it? Really? It is only another name of the wider brand that is Woolworths, one of the 2 or 3 players in the market. We think it is competition but it is not. Aldi's and others are competition and where are they in the WA market? Nowhere frozen out. When I said if you like "cheap and poor quality wines" that you can get it at DM's I simply meant that. You can get it there but you are right again, and I should have qualified my point, which is that they do have a wide range of good quality wines and also that you can get wine at $5 a bottle in a lot of places. My point above about those though is that I honestly believe you can get them a good prices elsewhere as well as DM's. It is back to the issue of the big players grabbing the market. We never give the independants much of a chance. Also my point about you only know what you know was linked to that point and that it simply was that DM's is not all what is it cracked up to be. Not trying to be smart. Anyway the bigger issue when I read this thread again was what a great example we all set. Rushing about trying to get booze as cheap as we can and kids hearing / reading that we can get it at $5 a bottle. They must just all look up to us and think what great examples we all are...... If we taught them about the quality of a product against simply price then maybe, just maybe we would be adding some value to what we teach them. At the moment kids are seeing cheap is good, more is better than less and so on..... Sorry bit deep here

Ok that is clearer.... Then in that case nothing. Everything here like that is competively priced I think and not worth the hassle of sorting out over there for shipping over. We did not bring out much and bought new here. Having a new life, a new house (rented or bought) in a new world and having the old three piece suite, knackered mattresses and tv's never did it fo us??? Does not make sense to me If you can afford to do it that way then that is what I would recommend. Save on container costs and spend, spend, spend on arrival.... Appreciate not everyone in the same boat though.....

If you like cheap and you like poor quality wines then yeah you buy that stuff at DM's at $5 a bottle or less. If you like better quality wines, and are happy to pay a bit more, then there are much better value places to buy in Perth. Bear in mind Dan Murphys is only Woolworths not some big, select professional in the market. Beer there is also not that good value with other outlets alway seemingly having better deals. DM's run a promotion now and again to draw you in but if you know Perth it is not the place. I suppose you only know what you know though.....

So was I......

Ermmm...... Why not Bibra Lake itself? Reside and work in the same suburb - now there is a novelty for folk living in Perth!! Plenty of parks, nice houses and all within reach of the city and Freo.

This has been done already see this link. http://www.perthpoms.com/forum/health-care/11088-stocking-up-stuff-before-heading-oz.html Sensodyne toothpaste if you use it and Nivea spray sun tan lotion factor 30 when it is around a fiver or six quid (great for the car or in a bag when out and about) are the only two items that I have ever bothered with when I travel here.

Bring them and as many filter replacements as you can that are there on special (sale) there and the expiry dates are ok.

Ok so any suburb which is predominately filled with folk from England then??? Only joshing.....

It is tricky isn't it? If you are going to move into a catchment area, and you cannot afford to go private, then is some ways the public schools are what they are and you will need to use them. Of course it is ok for folk to say to you my kids go there, and they like it, or yeah they are ok but do not offer the exact subjects my kids wanted and so on. Perhaps it would be good if you had some more detailed, specific questions that you have in mind and then it would help to get you some better quality answers? Is that possible?

www.seek.com.au

Arghhhhhhh Sorry. Just to clarify. By asking about the best schools and the best areas does this mean you have an unlimited budget? Or would you like information based on what you can afford? If the latter what is your rough budget? Also do you mean North Perth, which is an area / suburb in it's only right or was it a typo and you mean North of Perth which is a much greater area to consider? It is just that there is a big difference in costs. Are you coming in November to stay or is that just a holiday to have a look, you do not say? If you need to get a visa to come here to work and stay longer then that is the first step to research? Check here. http://www.immi.gov.au/visawizard/ If you send me your e-mail address, via a Private Message, I will then send you back a whole lot of information that you can use to start the wider research.

Good luck with the job hunting.

Welcome to Perth..... Not sure if you started the process of requesting the phone line and broadband services after you moved into the new home or before? If it was after then maybe that has been part of the problem? You do not say? Anyway my advice for an Internet service provider would be IInet as well. Very efficient service, good range of offerings including download bundles and fair priced.

As Levi says if she is sponsored they will sort out visa and you / kids will be in that one as well. As for other general info if you send me a PM (top of page) then I will fire you a starter for ten.

http://www.det.wa.edu.au/schoolsonline/home.do Type in Mindarie, or any other area you are researching, and that will at least give you a list of schools in the area.

In Mrs Brown's Boys, the son when he applied to come here, it only took 4 weeks for his visa to be processed and he spoke with a broad Dublin accent!! Not sure if that helps to give you an idea on timescales or not