Preparation for leaving South Africa

[StephenR]

Hi everyone

 

So we were granted our PR this past week and now we start with the hard work of transitioning from South Africa to Australia.

 

I would be very grateful to hear your advice on how to structure the move over, in other words, what is the best timing to sell your house, sell your possessions, transport what we are keeping across to Sydney and when to move into temporary accommodation here, etc.  

 

What would you advise that we do first, second, etc?

 

It would be very helpful to hear what worked well, what didn't and what you would do the same or differently.

 

Thanks a lot! 

 

Stephen

[EmNew]

Hi, 

 

Congrats on the PR !!

 

Well, we did things a little differently from the people above, but our circumstances were also different - no kids, and I worked from home.

 

We wanted to sell our house whilst still in RSA, and decided that that would be a priority, and exit date would have to work around transfer.

We had noticed that houses in our area, and even in our road, sat on the market for months and months, and sp we did not want to have a ticket booked and then stress about getting house sold in time.

The irony is that we listed on the first Monday in May, and house sold within 6 hours....... Things moved a LOT faster than anticipated.

We then chatted to buyer, who was in a rental themselves that needed notice, so we were able to negotiate staying in the house after transfer to give us time to sort things out.

So this was our order :

 

1) Sell house - May 2015

2) Book tickets for late September 2015

3) Start selling off non-essential furniture/equipment  ( we had already done the what to do take / sell / donate decision before we got PR )

4) Sell my car - lower mileage, better price

5) Get quotes for personal items we wanted to ship ( we did the sell all, buy new in Aus route, only taking books, personal items, heirlooms , spare clothes , crockery, cutlery, cookware etc )

6) Appointed shipping agent in July 2015

7) Cleaned all items that would be potential problems in Australia 

8) Hosted the farewell from our side late August

9) Shippers packed early September - we moved all that needed packing into the lounge, kitchen and dining room, and closed all bedrooms, to ensure that nothing that needed to stay for luggage or giveaway was packed in error

10) Sold hubby's car mid September and got a rental from CTIA that we could drop off the day we flew

11) Camped in our house the last few weeks - actually enjoyed this as it gave us perspective as to how little we actually needed to get through a day, and became really innovative in the kitchen with limited cookware , utensils etc

12) Started the job search late August / early Sept - hubby was lucky to get an interview set up via an agent for a few days after we were due to land

13) Spent time with loved ones ,and worked on the admin to-do's 

14) Started the donation drive - Help a Rural Child ( they collect ) and Durbanville Children's Home were our recipients

15) Panicked when we realised that there was simply not enough time to do the touristy things we wanted to do for ourselves, such as one final trip to Kirstenbosch, drive to Simons Town, etc etc - it was a trade off between spending time with friends and family and taking time out to do that, and we chose the path of least fallout 

16) Booked ourselves into a B&B with great views over V&A for the last 2 nights - to prepare ourselves for the emotional good byes and to say good bye to Cape Town

17) Drove ourselves to CTIA, but met all that were interested at Mugg and Bean pre boarding. We had mixed feelings about this - we didn't really want it, but realised that this was more than about ourselves and what we wanted. It was hard, but we got through it without breaking down altogether

 

What we found useful was an app called Trello - we had our to-do lists there, and shared them with one another. We had a board for what to sell, what to donate, what admin to do, and we moved it from to-do, WIP, done each night, tracking our progress. It was a great visual way of keeping on top of it all. 

We used the "100 steps to immigrate " that Jordy wrote way back as a basis, and added our personal requirements on the Trello app. That worked well for us to make sure we didn't drop the ball on anything.

 

One thing I do regret is not taking enough time out for ourselves. The application process is stressful and draining, but I found the post approval period even more so. So, even if you get dark looks, snide comments from friends and family, take the time to look after yourself too - add the things you want to do for you on the to-do lists

 

[AFreshStart]

6 hours ago, StephenR said:

Hi everyone

 

So we were granted our PR this past week and now we start with the hard work of transitioning from South Africa to Australia.

 

I would be very grateful to hear your advice on how to structure the move over, in other words, what is the best timing to sell your house, sell your possessions, transport what we are keeping across to Sydney and when to move into temporary accommodation here, etc.  

 

What would you advise that we do first, second, etc?

 

It would be very helpful to hear what worked well, what didn't and what you would do the same or differently.

 

Thanks a lot! 

 

Stephen

 

Hi StephenR,

 

Firstly, congratulations on receiving your PR, liked your post in your journal thread, but this is the first chance I'm getting respond to it.

 

The easiest thing to do is work backwards, when are you planning on moving Australia? 

 

We lived a popular suburb in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town, we got 4 evaluations from local estate agents in the area and glad we did because quite honestly two of them we pie in the sky, one we felt was under valued, the other was the just right and used that as our base, but glad we had a range.

 

After announcing our impending emigration on Facebook one of friends expressed an interest and we sold the house within a week or two of making it public news to them and we able to defer transfer till 2-weeks before flying out and spent those 2-weeks living with my in-laws.

 

If you plan on shipping your belongings it is best to decide up front how you want to do it. It seems it's very popular here to ship your stuff when you leave, and wait 3-months for your container and camp on this side.

 

If we DIDN'T have young children to consider we might have done that, but decided to ship our stuff BEFORE we left so that it would be here on our arrival. I decided to fly in 10-days before my family, took possession of our goods, moved into our rental and set-up shop. When the family arrived their beds were there, toys, and they settled in right away. 

 

It's also a lot easier to camp that side because of your network, much easier to ask your mates if you can borrow cups, plates, cutlery, mattresses etc.

 

Start cleaning, sorting, shredding and disposing of stuff you don't need now, you'll be amazed at how much of it is lying around. We must have dumped 2-3 outside bins of trash, old documents, letters, years of old invoices etc. I kept all records I needed to keep for my business for tax reasons, but no need to keep the welcome pack from MTN for my first cell phone back in 1999!

 

Shipping your stuff early also gives you time to sell the stuff you aren't taking. We shipped less than half a 20ft container, just essentials, beds, mattresses, linen, clothes, kids toys, books, 2-3 boxes of personal affects, a few select furniture pieces, dining room table and chairs. The irony is we sold the furniture once we got here we, but they were handmade custom mid-century modern and scandi pieces which are on trends and we turned a profit on them so it worked in our favor.

 

We used Crown Relocations and were suitably impressed with their service all round, they carefully packed our belongings and took 2-days doing so and helped unpack it all this side to surface level and outside of a single cracked wine glass we experienced no damage or breakages.

 

RE selling what we didn't take, I listed the larger items on Gumtree. I then started an Instagram account and shot images of all the smaller items and let our network know about them. For the real smalls and knick knacks I held a garage sale a month before we left, whatever was left we moved it all to the front of the house, and when we had a farewell with all our friends, told them to take whatever they wanted, to give what the could and donated the funds to a charity we support which works with at risk kids. The rest we donated to charities like St. Luke's & Oasis.

 

We had two cars and sold one 2-months before we left, the older one and one we could get a better cash deal on making a private sale. We then started advertising the newer car a month before departure after getting a dealer price from the dealer, but were able to sell it privately and made R30,000 more than had we sold it to the dealer 10-days before we left and were able to borrow a car when we needed one.

 

Hope that's somewhat helpful!

 

Cheers

 

Matt

 

[StephenR]

Hi Mel

 

Thanks so much for your answer.  What do you mean by "cleaning" the keep items.  You mean for customs etc.??

 

 

[Tanikit]

We have found that even though we started when we got our PR, things moved faster and faster toward the end... my husband leaves in less than 3 weeks now. Sorting the house out has taken months - cleaning, packing, selling, organising. We have had to fix up the house to rent it too which has all been done amongst the packing (we will sell it later). Our "container" comes on Tuesday - we are not taking much so are not taking a full/half container and it is leaving when it is because everything closes down between Christmas and New Year and we do not yet have a place to stay giving us time to find a place once my husband gets there. My husband goes directly from our house to Australia and I will be in temporary accommodation with the children from 1 January until he is more settled which also gives us time to have a more leisurely goodbye. 

Getting documents for the children as well as dealing with end of year functions at the same time has taken a while and I have also been collecting references for my own work since my husband was main applicant but I also need references. 

 

Many things you will not have much control over. I sold my car today for example and our bed was sold a while ago, but luckily to people who are willing to wait til the end of the year before they fetch these things so we will have what we need til we move. You just have to think ahead, pray lots, accept what you cannot change and work with what you can to make it all work out. Good luck. Each family will do it differently and each will have different experiences.

 

Advise on what to do first: drink a cup of tea/coffee/beer, celebrate the PR and decide when to leave then work accordingly.

[SurferMan]

Mate read Jordys 100 step process to emigrate. Has all the vitamins and minerals you need. LOL

[Mel-B]

8 hours ago, StephenR said:

Hi Mel

 

Thanks so much for your answer.  What do you mean by "cleaning" the keep items.  You mean for customs etc.??

 

 

Yes, varnishing wooden items, de-rusting tools, etc.

[Minks]

Congrats on your PR StephenR!

 

I agree with AFreshStart - working backwards from your estimated (or confirmed) date of departure does help as it gives you a more definite timeline of when things need to be accomplished.

 

To specifically answer your question though:

I would say selling your house is probably priority number 1 - or at least getting it listed... A sale can take time and from offer to transfer can take a few months!

We started sorting out what we wanted to take with us in the container, put the house on the market - once we had a secure offer we booked our flights, then started speaking to people about buying our vehicles, got quotes for the container, booked short-term "holiday" accommodation for our first few weeks in Aus, got kids enrolled in a school, booked rental vehicles - both for the last few days in South Africa & when we arrive in Australia, started giving notice to service providers, are selling off / donating what we don't want etc

 

I think everyone has their own way of doing things, but for us, it has been all about THE LIST. We put together an excel spreadsheet of things which need to be done, who they need to be completed by (either Hubby or myself) & the date by which they need to be done. One of the things on the list is as silly as "pack suitcases" - because it now has a specific date & it's not something that can be a last minute rush before the packers come to load the container!

It has been a lifesaver for us as we have been able to cross tasks off daily, put remarks/comments in about references or emails sent / people spoken to... etc

Whether it's right or wrong... I will only know once we have arrived on the other side, but for now it's helping to maintain some form of sanity!

 

Good luck with the next steps! Time flies when you're having fun!!

[Eva]

Congrats on the visa!  And all the best with the rest of your emigration journey...

[Sunnyskies]

We chose our flight date and then worked backwards, we got our Visa 15 September and decided to fly on 6 January:

1. Booked flight

2. Started the great sort (took a while)

3. Booked removalist (they packed 27 to 29 December )

3. Worked diligently on drinking the wine collection  (on reflection we should have taken it with)

4. Put house on market immediately but took off at end of November because it was getting messy and no market. So found a tenant instead.

5. Sold car 1 early December and car 2 just before we left.

6. Hosted big farewell party on 5 December  (before the big mess started)

7. Sold what we could

8. Gave away what felt like a lot  (should have been more ruthless)

9. Packed our luggage and locked away before removalists arrived. 

10. Gave away what was left of our food and drinks - everyone who came to the house in the last week left with a box. 

 

What I couldnt do from Joburg:

- find a rental

- find a school 

I tried but both went in the too hard bucket.  My work paid for a furnished apartment for 4 weeks and we got sorted in about 2 weeks of arrival on 11 Jan (we took a few days in Hong Kong on the way).

 

[StephenR]

i am just really grateful for the time you all took to write on this topic.  we realised when we got into it that this isn't rocket science and one step at a time and one small bite of the elephant will get us where we need to be.  Thanks to everyone, making things much easier 

[EmNew]

12 minutes ago, StephenR said:

one step at a time and one small bite of the elephant will get us where we need to be. 

Hope your elephant is more cooperative than ours was 

We had a binge eater - we would go to bed thinking we had a smaller elephant , but for every bite we took out of him, he would take 2 bites of a meal that made him gain substantial weight !

[StephenR]

I am sure this is on the Forum somewhere, can someone point me towards the list of customs dos and don't, what we are allowed to take and what is a mission.

 

Thanks a lot!

[StephenR]

And a big thank you to everyone for taking the time to answer this important question for me.  I really appreciate it.

[Mel-B]

Still in the process ourselves.

 

The one aspect that took longer than I thought it would, was sorting what to keep and take. (Cleaning and prepping the "keep" items and actually getting the "sell" items sold for OK prices.) Allocate enough time for that and then add more time!