Getting a rental when you first arrive.

[Guest bakercrew]

Hi Everyone,

 

I would like to tell you about my experience on trying to find a rental. I am sure like most here (or looking to get) a short rental whilst their furniture etc is making its way over. I secured a 11 week fully furnished rental (thru ozhouserentals- tracey - you will find her on here). We did not come over here with on job sponsorship as we done the whole process on our own. So as soon as we arrived and after first 2 weeks of relaxing and taking in the beautiful country and beaches etc we settled down into job hunting. My husband was luckily and found a job in 5 weeks. excellent. However it was now time to look for a rental as my furniture was soon to be arriving - hey I have at least 5 weeks should not be a problem - opps silly me.

 

Rentals work completely different here. You find a rental you like and wait for the open day to look around you do not choose when to look you get told when to look. Then loads of familys turn up to look around. The rental market at mo is not good so everyone is looking. You need to provide works references and previous rental history. This is where it goes wrong. As we had just come over all your UK credit history is now gone. My husband has only been working for two weeks so not enough work history for a reference as they prefer you to by employed in your job at least 3 months. We had no rental reference as like most UK people I owned my own house in the UK. (MAKE SURE YOU BRING COPIES OF YOUR MORT STMTS).

 

All rentals require a rental application form to be completed and you need to pay a fee to look at the property. Dont worry if you are not accepted this money is returned. This amount is normally the equi of one weeks rental.

 

I searched realestate.com everyday for possible rentals (you will find some rentals are still listed as avail when they have gone). I then phoned the rent companies (70% unhelpful) to find out when the open days will be. You are given a 15 min time slot to look around. Dont be late they dont wait around.

 

I decided to go around different areas to write down the names of areas as I was interested in and went up and down the streets to look at the different houses. Unless you are looking at an area where it is a new or recently new development you will come across some mingers of rentals.

 

I looked at lots of properties and were being continuously turned down as we did not have any rental history and had only just secured a job so we were a big risk to take on. Thanks you say.

 

In the end I made my own portfolio to provide with every rental application. This consisted of a introduction letter to explain who we were, why we emigrated, how much money we brought with us (you must back this up with bank stmt preferably an aussie one), details of our house we had in UK before we sold (pics help - this shows quality of your furn and how tidy it is etc), copy of our visa grant, copy of our mort stmts, copy of my husbands employment contract, copy of id ( you will need your medicard and wa driv lic and bank card for this), why we like the particular area we have chosen etc etc. Basically they want your blood.

 

Eventually at the eleventh hour and I mean eleventh hour (due to move out of rental on sat and was approved on thur), we finally got our acceptance. As we were getting very close to close for comfort to move out I began pleading with the agency (not a good look).

 

My advise for getting a rental if you have not come over on a work sponsor is to give your self time to look for a rental, get all your rental info ready before hand, always look around prop from outside first before the appt time, get there early.

 

Also a lot of rentals do not like pets unless you have a small dog and they you will need to pay an extra pet bond.

 

Fees you will need to pay is a bond (2 weeks rental) and then between 2 or 4 weeks rental upfront. The bond is returned at the end of the rental. MAKE SURE you go thru and reputable agency or if it is a private rental make sure you receive a letter plus a receipt confirming you have paid the bond, how much, what the rental agreement timeframe is, and conditions of return of the bond.

 

A lot of rentals especially if a lot of families are going for it generally ask you to pay either high rental amount or provide more rental upfront say between 6 to 8 weeks up front.

 

I hope the above is helpful please note that we were looking ove Nov/Dec which is not a good time as everything closes down for 2 weeks at christmas so this did not help us.

[thebuckos]

Thanks so much for this, extremely helpful!!

[basicweb]

Great advice there, thanks for the comprehensive post. The rental market really is tight over here at the moment, and we always advise people to take up to 3 month furnished rental, to give them time to find the areas they are looking at and then be able to apply for and be accepted for quality rentals. Getting a portfolio together makes it really easy for the Real Estate agents, and lets face it they want an easy life, so being able to show the owner that you are a quality future tenant will really help. I've also heard that if you offer slightly over the rate required, or even offer to pay 6 months up front this can help.

 

PS Glad you're settling in well and enjoying life over here!

 

Tracey

[Druid]

I see you had fun too, arn't rental agents fun to deal with, try doing it with a 2YO Golden Retreiver, even more fun, nice to see it is not just us that struggled to secure a rental

[Guest mdeejacks]

thanks for info,

 

think we may need to copy you and be prepared with all the info required.

 

cheers

jack

[Guest doodlebee]

Glad I read this, thanks bakercrew.

[eweasel]

Brilliant post. -

We have a problem in that we have 2 weeks to find a rental - only arrived on tuesday night. We have 4 houses to look at (hopefully) tuesday. If none workout we'll have to find another short-term let. I have spoken to a couple of Agents about "rental packs" who were like "what na just go to the viewing" not very helpful :-(

 

Just one question. 3 of the houses we are looking at on Tuesday are with the same Agency - Professional - do we need to copy the rental pack for each application?

I don't think we have a hope at the mo - still waiting for medicare cards, doing driving licences on Tuesday morning (fingers )

 

but the landlord to the place we are letting now is prepared to give us a reference and we have one from our last UK address plus the estate agent flyer for our house when we sold it. Got a bank statement detailing the amount in our savings n our last mortgage statement from the UK plus saving account details there. proof of our council taxt, gas, elec and water dd payments for the last year and I was going to write a covering letter about why we are here and our plans to stay etc.

 

God this is worse then applying for the visa

 

Est x

[Guest bakercrew]

Hi Est,

 

It is good that you are seeing three by same agency, getting really chatty with them and show how sincere you are and tell them that you are putting a portfolio together, more info you can give the better. I only gave them the one portfolio but filled out the application ready to hand in straight away once you are happy it is right. What area are you looking at. I know that I looked only yest and only 8 rentals were available in our area that was for 4 x 2 rentals.

[eweasel]

Hi Est,

 

It is good that you are seeing three by same agency, getting really chatty with them and show how sincere you are and tell them that you are putting a portfolio together, more info you can give the better. I only gave them the one portfolio but filled out the application ready to hand in straight away once you are happy it is right. What area are you looking at. I know that I looked only yest and only 8 rentals were available in our area that was for 4 x 2 rentals.

 

Hi Bakercrew

 

Thanks for your reply. We are looking around Bayswater/ Bassendean that sort of area - purerly because of the proximity to hubby's work (Malaga) but we will go where the house is within reason :-)

 

We are going for a scout around on Tuesday. I like your thinking on the shmoozing will definately give that a go :-). How long did it take you to secure somewhere? I am just so worried that when we turn upp there will be loads of people waiting to view as well we would probably turn around!

 

Hopefully we can get the porfolio stuff copied tomorrow or Tuesday morning ready for the agent at least then there is something to accompany the applications.

 

 

Thanks for your advice its very much appreciated

 

 

Est

[Guest bakercrew]

HI, We are not too far from Malaga, Bassendean is not such a nice area very industrialised, Try Ellenbrook/Aveley it is very nice and about 20 mins away. Malaga not sure what area is like as I have only driven thru it but again it is quite Industrial area. Alexandra Heights is also not far from Malaga. We are also in Aveley and it is a lovely area. We will have to catch up if you are not that far away.

Good luck on rentals. It took us about 5 weeks I went around all areas to check them out and then once I settled on an area I then drove up and down different roads to see what the houses and roads were like. Aveley is very nice as it does not have housing association there. Sorry does that sound snobby! Aveley is still new area so all the houses are new or only couple of years old.

 

Let me know how it goes. Helen

[Guest Hassan]

I wonder why the same house appears available for so much time on the rental websites like http://www.realestate.com.au and others alike?Furthermore,it has been noted that same house appears on all of them then what is the competitive advantage of one rental website has over another?What sort of service makes them stands out of the crowd?

 

Thanks.

[eweasel]

HI, We are not too far from Malaga, Bassendean is not such a nice area very industrialised, Try Ellenbrook/Aveley it is very nice and about 20 mins away. Malaga not sure what area is like as I have only driven thru it but again it is quite Industrial area. Alexandra Heights is also not far from Malaga. We are also in Aveley and it is a lovely area. We will have to catch up if you are not that far away.

Good luck on rentals. It took us about 5 weeks I went around all areas to check them out and then once I settled on an area I then drove up and down different roads to see what the houses and roads were like. Aveley is very nice as it does not have housing association there. Sorry does that sound snobby! Aveley is still new area so all the houses are new or only couple of years old.

 

Let me know how it goes. Helen

 

Hi Helen

 

Again thanks for your message. Its handy to have someone with some insight on the areas - we are pretty clueless about NOR as we were very much expecting to be SOR and had done all our research based on that ;-)

 

We has been offered a house in Bayswater (Babington Crescent) which we are going to have a look at tomorrow so we may be ok fingers crossed - the only downside is that it isn't available until the end of April so we will still need to find a short term let for April - start the hunt again )

 

It would be great to catchup once we are over that way

 

Est x

[Guest doodlebee]

bakercrew, you are a big shiny star!

Just posting to say we followed your advice, even came back to this thread to arrange which paperwork DH should take, and he has managed to get the first house he looked at. Picking up the keys next week.

Brilliant!

[basicweb]

bakercrew, you are a big shiny star!

Just posting to say we followed your advice, even came back to this thread to arrange which paperwork DH should take, and he has managed to get the first house he looked at. Picking up the keys next week.

Brilliant!

 

Well done!! It is good to hear some positive results on here too

Great advice for anyone - be prepared and make it easy for the RE agent.

 

Tracey

[Guest Donnab76]

HI, We are not too far from Malaga, Bassendean is not such a nice area very industrialised, Try Ellenbrook/Aveley it is very nice and about 20 mins away. Malaga not sure what area is like as I have only driven thru it but again it is quite Industrial area. Alexandra Heights is also not far from Malaga. We are also in Aveley and it is a lovely area. We will have to catch up if you are not that far away.

Good luck on rentals. It took us about 5 weeks I went around all areas to check them out and then once I settled on an area I then drove up and down different roads to see what the houses and roads were like. Aveley is very nice as it does not have housing association there. Sorry does that sound snobby! Aveley is still new area so all the houses are new or only couple of years old.

 

Let me know how it goes. Helen

We fancy aveley /ellenbrook area as my hubby's work is in midland but didn't like the look of midland it's self , would you say aveley is around 1/2 hr drive away ? I thought aveley looked out of the way a bit am I right or wrong ? Any response would be great x

[vixie99]

Hi sorry this message is for Druid - if you are still reading the post

 

I'm interested to know your experience of trying to find a rental with a Golden Retriever. I'm bringing mine over, she's 5 and will be due to come out of quarantine end of October - if all goes to plan.

Is there any particular agents I should perhaps target? Anything additional I can bring to say how quiet and well behaved she is?

My plan is to come over August and see what I can start to find - in advance of my actual move in September.

 

Anyother useful help with finding accommodation with a large dog appreciated.

[Guest Eva and Dave]

I've heard there are agents out there who act on behalf of the tenant. They can look to secure a property before you arrive in Perth... I think if you give them at least 6 weeks notice they will find something for you...