Moving Interstate or Overseas? Tips To Relieve Your Stress And Make Your Move Easier

By MyVine | March 5, 2011

Relocation consultants are the friends you need to have when you need international movers or interstate removalists. They are your ears and eyes on the ground prior to you leave your present home and they are your guides and confidantes when you arrive.

Moving your family is far more than just having your removalists pack, ship and unpack your home. Experienced international and interstate removalists provide a wide array of settlement solutions such as: finding short-term accommodation on arrival, new housing, schooling for children, supporting you with visa procurement, valet unpacking services and banking, health and insurance needs.

 
A relocation agent has to understand your needs and at the same time manage your expectations. Your biggest worry is often the fear of the unknown – how will I cope with daily life and keep my family happy.

Locating a new home often gives you the greatest worry and concern. To get an appreciation of you as a family, your expectations and desires for your new home, you will complete an in-depth questionnaire. This helps your consultant to commence your settling in process before you leave.

 
The criteria for finding a new home are frequently very similar for everyone – near to schools, near to transport for work, near to facilities such as shopping malls and sporting facilities. Is this always possible? Experienced relocation consultants have a keen understanding and are able to deal directly with the real estate market. Having the right agent can speed up this processconsiderably. Not only do they have knowledge of the places that are appropriate for you, but they comprehend the real estate market and have close ties with real estate agents. They will provide you information as early as possible on the amount, quality and availability of rental accommodation and give you an idea whether or not your expectations can be fulfilled simply. At the same time they can direct you to the right websites so that you can commence to understand what to expect and to set a realistic budget.

Just because you have funds does not mean that you will find a house.  You ought to look for removalist businesses whose agents can provide you with information on the present-day local rental market, which include specific cities and suburbs.  Your relocation agent should be able to give you a breakdown of the cost of one bedroom, two bedroom and three bedroom houses and apartments, including whether they are furnished and unfurnished.

Having an understanding of the rental occupancy rates right down to the budget ranges in your new location is also extremely critical. If the standard availability of rental properties to meet your expectations is less than 2%, be ready to wait some time for the right home or better still be prepared to compromise. Also be conscious that the larger your budget, the readily available homes reduces considerably, sometimes less than 0.5%.

In looking for a new home often people ignore the influence of the time of the year. For example, in Australia, most people want to turn up in January ready for the start of the school or working year. However, January is holiday time and for the first few weeks the real estate market fundamentally shuts down and you will not often get a home to view from late December to mid-January. There are related scenarios in every country. How then can you make the right choice of home? How can you do this on your own from a distance?

A consultant’s task is not to find your new home.  A consultant will present to you a variety of homes that are within your requirements from what is available in the market. Consequently getting your requirements right undoubtedly helps. However, don’t despair, an experienced relocations agent is flexible and can quickly change. They understand that when you are actually in your new location and your understanding increases, so too will your thoughts and ideas. The consultant’s role is to work out your real priorities and then establish compromises if required. They will help you decide on what is important, how important it is and then keep going until they find the right property for you. Maybe an extra stop or two on the train will get you the perfect home? 

If you are relocating to a new state or country prepare well ahead of time. Have confidence in your relocations agent and have as many phone discussions as necessary prior to leaving . The more they know you, the more they can help you. One of the ideal ways is to have a “look see” visit. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time for this as most times  4 to 5 days is just not enough time to look around.  If feasible both a husband and wife should visit as both may have diverse ideas behind the kind of home that will be suitable – and keep in mind your thoughts will change once you see what is available. Your family needs to be content and at ease or your relocation will have a difficult time and perhaps not succeed. A relocations agent can setup appointments that flow into each other to maximise your time while you are searching. At the same time, you do not have the stress of driving blind, worrying about traffic and directions. Your time is better spent weighing up the pros and cons of what you have seen.

If you find the right home think seriously about obtaining it right away, even though you may not move for 2-3 months. Spending the extra on rent early may easily outweigh short-term accommodation for a month or two when you arrive.

Engaging relocation agents from experienced removalists will save you time, money, stress and above all give you the greatest chance of finding a new home that is as close to your needs as possible.

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