Relocations agents are the friends you need when you are moving internationally or interstate. They are your eyes and ears on the ground before you leave your current home and they are your guides and confidantes when you arrive.

Relocating your family is more than just having your removalists pack, ship and unpack your home. Experienced international and interstate removalists provide a broad range of settlement services such as: finding temporary accommodation on arrival, new housing, schooling for children, helping 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 greatest worry is often the fear of the unknown – how will I cope with everyday life and keep my family happy.
Finding a new home often gives you the greatest worry and concern. To get an appreciation of you as a family, your expectations and needs for your new home, you will complete an in-depth questionnaire. This helps your consultant to begin your settling in process before you leave.

The criteria for finding a new home are often very similar for everyone – close to schools, close to transport for work, close to amenities 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 process considerably. Not only do they have knowledge of the areas that are suitable for you, but they understand the real estate market and have close ties with real estate agents. They will provide you information as early as possible on the quantity, quality and availability of rental accommodation and give you an idea whether your expectations can be met easily. At the same time they can direct you to the right websites so that you can start to understand what to expect and to set a realistic budget.

Just because you have money doesn’t mean that you are going to find a house. You should look for removalist companies whose agents can provide you with information on the current local rental market, including 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 levels in your new location is also extremely important. If the general availability of rental properties to meet your expectations is less than 2%, be prepared to wait some time for the right home or better still be prepared to compromise. Also be aware that the higher your budget, the available homes reduces dramatically, sometimes less than 0.5%.

In looking for a new home often people overlook the influence of the time of the year. For example, in Australia, most people want to arrive 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 basically shuts down and you will rarely get a home to view from late December to mid-January. There are similar situations in every country. How then can you make the right choice of home? How can you do this alone from a distance?

A consultant’s job is not to find your new home. A consultant will present to you various homes that are within your requirements from what is available in the market. Therefore getting your requirements right certainly 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 knowledge increases, so too will your thoughts and ideas. The consultant’s role is to work out your real priorities and then establish compromises if necessary. 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 early. Trust your relocations agent and have as many phone conversations as necessary before you leave. The more they know you, the more they can help you. One of the best ways is to have a “look see” visit. Allow a reasonable amount of time for this as most times 4 to 5 days is just not enough time to look around. If possible both a husband and wife should visit as both may have different ideas behind the type of home that will be suitable – and remember your thoughts will change once you see what is available. Your family needs to be happy and comfortable or your relocation will have a difficult time and possibly not succeed. A relocations agent can setup appointments that flow into each other to maximise your time while you are looking. At the same time, you do not have the pressure 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 securing it immediately, even though you may not move for 2-3 months. Spending the extra on rent early may easily outweigh temporary accommodation for a month or two when you arrive.

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

Author Bio: Sally Mallin is an experienced relocations consultant with Crown Relocations Sydney – removalists. For families that require interstate removalists or international removalists, Crown offers family and corporate relocation programme that help you settle into your new location quickly and easily.

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: relocation agents, removalists, international removalists, interstate removalists