New to Sydney-"No worries mate" rental home search tips

of tips for people newly or to relocate to sydney and are looking for a rental accomodation


How easy is to get house in Sydney?
It is always found that getting an accommodation within the 2 weeks is challenge unless and until you do some basic planning before you reach Sydney.


What is the basic planning that I need to do before I travel?

1.Get familiar with the suburb names and speak to your friends if any in Sydney.
2.If possible, finalise few suburbs based on your interactions and internet searches
3. Find out through the real estate websites what the typical rent ranges in these suburbs is.

How will I search for a House?
1. In Sydney the house search is done through Property agents.
2. There is no direct involvement with the House Owner.
3. Some of the popular websites for house search are listed below.
4. Note that house rents listed are weekly rents.
5. The houses which are available will be listed in the Websites and also in front of the real estate agents office of the concern suburb.
6. Identify the list of houses in the suburb of your choice and which meets your requirement.
7. Find out the Open House timings of the houses you are interested to see. Please note that majority of the houses are available for inspection only on Saturdays. And the inspection of the house is not as per your wish. The house can be inspected only at the convenience of the property agent. (If you are delayed by a hour to the start time , I bet you have high risk of missing very good properties as others would have occupied.)


Which are the famous property agents?

Some of the major property agents and the popular rental property websites are listed below. Units are equivalent to flats in India.
· www.realestate.com.au
· www.domain.com.au
· www.ljhooker.com.au
· www.raineandhorne.com.au
· www.mcgrath.com.au

Please note that this is not comprehensive list and just some recommendations.


What are the key things I should keep in mind while looking for house?

1. Identify where is your work/study location.
2. Study the Sydney Rail Map or the Sydney Bus Stop map and identify where the work locations closest train/bus stop is.
3. Also once you see a house, find out how far it is from Public Transport stop/station and whether you get direct bus/train to your work place.
4. The big supermarkets in Sydney are Woolworths (www.woolworths.com.au ), coles(www.coles.com.au) and Aldi(www.aldi.com.au) . See the distances to these supermarkets.
5. If you have kids, please find out about the schools as well. (http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au and http://www.schoolchoice.com.au/)


If I like a house, how easy is to finalise the house?

1. Good, so you have finalised the suburb, decided on the budget and even liked the house. But still it’s not over!!!!!!
2. You need to file an “Application for Tenancy” to the property manager. My exp. there will be a minimum of 5 people putting the application for the same house.
3. The “Application for Tenancy” will be reviewed by the House owner and he takes the final call whether you will be allotted the house or not. And as stated earlier there is no way for you to know who the house-owner is or to speak to him or to influence him.
4. If you are lucky, the property agent will do a reference check of the details stated by you in the application form by calling the person whom you have stated in the application form.
5. And if you go through successfully the property agent will inform you of the final decision.


Once I get the house, what are the other formalities?
In most cases it is as follows…
1. You need to pay the advance of 1 month rent.
2. You also need to pay 2 weeks of advance rent.
3. You need to show proof and satisfy the 100 points criteria. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_point_check)
4. Some accomodation demands you to stay for a minimum period and if you fail and vacate the accomodation you will have to pay some extras for that.
5. Ensure that you cross verify in detail what is stated in the Inspection report.



Disclaimer: Iam any way away from sydney for the last few months, So would like the present sydney people to come with their tips

Cheers,
SVRLax

That was a wonderful post SVRlax.....This will help many people migrating to Sydney get an idea on finding a home....

Thanks for the info..Keep visiting....

Regards,

Corallux

Thanks a lot for the motivation. Happy to hear that the post was informative. Planning to put a serial of post on the topic "New to sydney".....
Lets see

Cheers
SVRLax

Hi svrlax

Excellent work and very detailed too. Just one more point to be stressed on the condition report (just because of my personal experience), i would strongly suggest, you click a few digital photographs of the cracks, hooks, stain marks (that have not been indicated in the condition report). Even though you write them down in your commecnt part of the condition report, it helps to have the photos for proof, when it comes to a point of discrepancy. So anything that you dont agree with the condition report, take a photo....... just my opinion
Keep up the good work.

Cheers
Sky98

I have stayed for a long time away from this thread.

Thanks a lot for reminding me about the Condition report Sky98. That was a wonderful point. So thought of detailing somethings on the same

I dont remember, how I forgot to mention about this important thing though after seeing many of my colleagues and friends paying huge amounts for just because they didnt give the right weightage to the condition report when they entered.

Only myself and one of my colleague escaped from not being penalised. I wasnt because the guy was a very good guy. My colleague because he mitigated all the risk when he occupied the house by meticulously detailing the condition report.

Do every thing to put things black and white, in bold and limelight when you occupy the house. Do take photos and share with your property agent. When something like water seepge or cracks widening or new cracks happening during your stay, keep the agent on heels and detail and completely explain him ib Emails with photographs.

Also if needed I suggest you let your agent authorised cleaner to clean the house when you vacate so that you can ensure that he cleans properly, else you can Immediately call the property agent and say that he hasnt done the job properly.

If your house is carpeted make sure they dont have any strains when you occupy for the first. If there are make it explicit in the condition report or ask the agent to arrange someone to remove the strain.

In one of my friends accomodation the grill oven was never used and the previous occupant had kept it unworthy to be used. He was fined just for the reason he didnt mention at the time of occupancy.

Also make sure your access cards and keys and every small item is listed and documented when you rent the house. I hada friend who was fined (when he vacated the home) for a access card to the garage which was never provided to him and he was least concerned as he never used it.

Originally Posted by sky98

Hi svrlax

Excellent work and very detailed too. Just one more point to be stressed on the condition report (just because of my personal experience), i would strongly suggest, you click a few digital photographs of the cracks, hooks, stain marks (that have not been indicated in the condition report). Even though you write them down in your commecnt part of the condition report, it helps to have the photos for proof, when it comes to a point of discrepancy. So anything that you dont agree with the condition report, take a photo....... just my opinion
Keep up the good work.

Cheers
Sky98

Cheers,