The Rental Process….and Finding a Home!

This is SO different in Australia!  First off, we had to go the rental route as purchasing a home in Australia is a nightmare from what we’ve heard.  You have to get government approval and company approval and then the obvious issues with making sure it sells before you leave.  A lot of Australians rent also simply because it is crazy expensive to buy a home here….I’ll give you an idea of how much later in this post.  So we are planning to rent while we are here, which I kind of hate doing as it is basically throwing money out the door, but it is what it is…I definitely feel like we could’ve been on House Hunters International!
Our first step in this process was checking out some local schools in the basic areas we considered living.  Over our first 2 full days, we visited 5 primary schools (Wahroonga, St. Ives Park, West Pymble, St. Ives, and Turramurra North).  They all seemed very nice with a few differences-mostly size and amenities.  During this time, we were also looking on the local rental site to see available properties.  A co-worker and US Stryker family that just moved here in April told us about the townhouse they live in, so we went to see it on Thursday (June 27-Day 2).  We were told that if we liked it, we needed to let them know by 4:30 that day.

CLICK ON THE PICTURES TO SEE LARGER! 

Potential house #1: Townhouse-4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 car garage

Option #1 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

So, we REALLY liked it and it did have 4 bedrooms plus a small space that we could put a desk….it had a VERY small garden area (like 5’ by 14’), but we thought we could make it work….so, we called her and told her we were interested by 4:30 and we agreed to meet up the next morning to fill out the application, etc. 
I could not sleep at all that night as my head raced about this decision and tried to space plan all of my things and determine my life here for the next 3 years.  Morning came and we debated some more until we came to the conclusion that this just would not work for our family right now.  If our kids were older, I think it would have been great, but they need to have a place to run around at home and we wanted to have a space for all of their toys that we brought…plus we started realizing all of the things that would need to go in that small garden area (trampoline, playhouse, water table, etc.).  We felt rushed to make a decision and really did like it, so it was hard to turn down (especially since we’d be next door to this other American family (with a 14 year old daughter) and it was walking distance to school and the train station as well as some village shops). 
The really hard thing about this rental market here is that good places do not last long, and if you see something you want, you have to act immediately…which we did, but thankfully we had a restless night’s sleep to think about it before committing.  So we continued our search.
The next day, Friday, we requested to see a couple houses that we thought might work for us.  One definitely wasn’t going to work, but the other one had potential.  We decided to wait until the following day to make a decision after going to some open houses on Saturday.
Another interesting thing about the rental market here is that, while they sometimes let you come in for private inspections, most of their homes rent out during their “open houses” which only occur on Saturdays and some Wednesdays.  On these days, the houses generally have a 15 minute window available for you to come and see the house.  If you really want it, you better have your application ready to hand over!  The realtors just bounce from house to house all day long.  So, there were 2 houses that we wanted to go to during the same 15 min. slot, so we had to choose.  One was the house that we had seen the previous day that we were considering putting an application in, so we decided to go there for a second look.  There was another family there, which made us nervous, so we went for it.  We put in our application and he told us he would let us know if the renters approved us by Monday.  We still went to 2 other open houses after and even though there were some features that we loved, they weren’t right for our family.
Potential house #2: Family home-4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage

Option #2 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Now, this home is a lot older, but well taken care of.  We loved the large front and back yard for the girls and that there was a lot of inside storage space as well as a formal dining area that we could turn into a playroom.  It was also close to a good school and Brian could take the bus to the train station for work. Some things were pretty outdated, but we figured we could live with it for the smaller rent amount.  Now, remember when I said that houses here are crazy expensive??  The realtor said this house would cost about $1,000,000 (yes, that is 1 million!) to purchase.  Can you believe it???  Crazy!
We had the weekend to process everything and when Monday rolled around and we hadn’t heard from the realtor regarding our application, we thought we’d hit up the house that had the conflicting open house time from Saturday just to see…and we really liked it.  We actually pretty much loved it other than one thing…notice the wood steps at the entry with the open rails and window behind them and think 3 small children…we figured we could come up with an idea to make this not be a problem.  Another family was there as well looking at it for a 2nd time and we could tell they were very interested as well.  It was a little more in rent, but we liked it and it was really close to a good school and a great playground as well as the village.  It also had a great patio area, beautiful yard, and tons of extra space for all of our things.  We talked to that realtor and he said that the other family was planning to put in an application as well.  He told us to get the deposit and the application and come to his office if we were interested and if there were multiple applications, the renter would decide.  So, we headed to our bank, got the money, filled out the application and went to his office. 
Potential house #3: Family home-4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 1 car garage

Option #3 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Well, during that time, the other family went to his office with their application and said they would wire the money.  So, since they were first, they got it.  I was not very happy as we clearly got poor advice…we could’ve handed him the application right then and there but we thought we had to have the money in hand.  The realtor said he didn’t think we were that interested and gave us poor direction because of that.  Yep, not fair, huh??  We reluctantly accepted the fact that it must not have been the right place for us…and in reality the stairs would’ve given me nightmares of my kids tumbling down and since while we there 2 of them got hurt by the pointy railing, we said goodbye to this home.
Ugh, this renting thing is exhausting and frustrating!!  On Tuesday night we got the call from the realtor from option #2.  He told us our application was approved and he wanted to get the lease signed that night.  We told him we’d call him back.  We talked a lot about what we really wanted and how timing was going to work out and ultimately decided that we didn’t really want Option #2.  We already felt like we were making excuses for why we chose the house…convenience and fitting our family, but we weren’t excited about it at all.  The bathrooms were really outdated and small and there was an open gas heater type thing out in the kitchen that we were concerned about with Hallie and just overall had doubts about it.  We also wanted a nice place to have guests visit and be excited about, so we decided to keep looking.
The next day we looked online and saw a few other options so we set up appointments for Thursday.  On Thursday we saw 2 houses that were both a little more in rent, but had some great features.  One was a no go, but the other one, seemed great.  We put in an application and it was accepted!  We move in on Saturday!  Finally!!!  Here is our new home for the next couple years…

		Our new home! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We are very excited about this house!  It actually doesn’t have any grass, but it has a ton of open space under the car port area and fenced off paved area.  We are also excited about the pool and all of the great space!  It does have a storage shed in the back for some things as well.  It’s walking distance to a good school and Brian’s plan as of right now is to ride his bike to the train station.

Come visit us!!! 108 Braeside Street, Wahroonga, NSW 2076