woodcroft?

[Spider]

hi there, so been getting quotes from woodcroft and i nearly fell off my chair - browsing rentals there's rentals for 250 p.w. and woodcroft is 357 p.w. - i suppose coz of cleaning and linen?

sjoe, thats a bit steep for us to start off so high (i am starting to now panic ), where else is recommended to stay while looking around that is reasonable?

would you ever recommend arranging a rental from here from seeing pics or waiting?

[Annette]

Chandi, this is confusing, are you talking furnished, or unfurnished, short or long term? I'm not a beat-around-the-bush kind of person, so I'm just going to get straight to the point - $357 per week is very good for Woodcroft. If this is furnished, you have yourself an extreme bargain and short term you will not get under $600 per week. Linen and cleaning? I don't know of any rentals that include that.

You will have to explain what reasonable means to you before anyone can give you a good answer to that question as $250 to $357 seems extremely reasonable to me.

Where are you getting the quotes from?

No I would not recommend arranging a rental from South Afr. Many of them look OK or even great on the net and in reality are absolute dumps. I would recommend making a short list, but don't get your hopes up, rentals are in short supply. Rather wait until you are almost here. When you arrive go to all the estate agents in person and pick up their new rental lists from them. The trick is to get in early, before the places are advertised, if possible.

Also, how many people are you? People here could start looking out for you but we need to know what you are looking for. Have you been to Woodcroft? Are you sure this is where you want to be? Adelaide is a very big place. Keep and open mind would be my recommendation.

[bluesfan]

$357pw is indeed very good. When we arrived we stayed in the Vines apartments. Also furnished with linen and that was $160 per day! The smaller units were $110 per day. The best is indeed to get a rental home as soon as possible. If you go through the estate agents you will wait longer as you would have to check out your application and references (and believe me they do check you out). That could sometimes take two weeks for them to get back with an answer. However, if you get a house/unit that is advertised in the classifieds you could probably get a place right away since you're dealing direct with the owner. Pro's and cons for each scenario though. Some owners could be a real pain in the..... but others might be nice. Property managers that act on behalf of the owners are obliged to carry out periodic inspections (mine's coming up monday.. again), but you do get at least two weeks notice. Always insist on a lease contract. Some owners may also require a smaller bond. The rentals agencies require 6 weeks rent right away (4 weeks bond and two wekks rent in advance). That could be devastating to start if you haven't got it. Make sure you have a vehicle as soon as possible when you get here. You have to go to open viewings. They only last 15min and you often have to rush from one to the other. I also suggest getting a GPS. Internet access is a must to view rentals. Get together as much identification documents as possible. You have to submit a 100 points identification. Your passport sometimes only count 50 points. That will help when you have to fill out an aplication form. Get the contact details of references (preferably Aussie references) and remember they do contact them to check you out). Hope this helps somewhat. It is a daunting and very stressful time lookin for a house at the start but we all went through it and came out alive on the other side.

Good luck

Jakes

[Spider]

thanks guys

oh ok, so then i am wrong and its reasonable - ok, as i said i dont know the detail and obviously have it wrong

Jakes, the place we stay in now - the owner lives on the gold coast so i suppose that helps hey!

i dont know how soon we can afford a car etc so i need to possibly look closer to the city - although woodcroft is close to transport etc

[Oubossies]

If you want to make use of bus services, it will take you between 45 min and an hour 30 min on a bus from the woodcroft centre. All depending on where in the city you want to be.