Perth Orientation Services Review

Blogging is seriously hard work especially when you have to go to work really early and your blog site is either blocked or monitored at your new job so this review is really over due.

Background
As you know I relocated from beautiful San Francisco to Perth Western Australia for work - I was told by my new employer that I would be put up in corporate accommodation and that I would be provided assistance with finding an apartment. About a week and a half before I arrived I was told my housing fell through and would I mind sharing a two bedroom with another lady who was relocating as well and already had an apartment for 6mths - I did not mind (that arrangement turned out to be quite fortunate as she is rather lovely). In any event the 'help' in finding a place to live consisted of "Here are the links to the housing websites", "Here are the best areas given you won't have a car just yet", "Don't go into these areas after dark" and "If you take time off to go look at apartments you have to make the hours back up". I had 1 month to find a place to live and after 1.5 weeks of calling rental agents to view places and not getting anywhere I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Solution
I thought at first Perth would have Rental agents that you could hire to find a place for you and they get a cut after you sign the contract; you know, like how it would work in the US. However, here the rental agents control the properties about 90%+, fewer than 10% of the rentals on the market are by private person to person rentals. It is a strange system especially when the property owner is right here in town most of the time.

Example: Bob has an apt as an investment property. In the US Bob would put an Ad in the paper or Craigslist, hold a series of open houses, get some applications with a $25 application fee for the credit check, select his tenant, collect his first, last and security deposit, tenant would move in and every body happy yeahhh!!

In Australia Bob would contract that out to Rental agency XYZ - rental agency will hold only 15min open houses, applicants will pay a weeks rent as the application fee, bond agency will hold the bond and every 2-3 months the rental agent will come out and inspect to see if the tenant is good at cleaning up after themselves thus making Bob feel like the money he is paying them is well spent.

Enter Perth Orientation Services - I found them online after hours of searching and was relieved after reviewing their website and seeing the services they offered. It seemed like they only worked with really big companies but I took a chance and sent them an email outlining my situation and the services I was looking for. Within a few hours I had a response from the owner Sue Pember - she explained that they were usually hired by companies in the Perth area to help the employees that the company relocated from overseas but she was willing to make an exception and work with me. I felt tears of relief welling up in my eyes sitting there at my desk - see it was July 15th and I had to find a place to live by Aug 1.

A few emails were exchanged during that day and the next to work out a contract since I would be paying for this myself and 2 days later I had my first meeting with my consultant the other Sue - Susan Lam. She was not at all freaked out with the short time frame and said she would get right on looking at places that met my requirement, arrange the appointments with the rental agents and also pick me up and take me to see the units - this was key as I did not know the area, public transportation here is not that strong, I was still expected to work a 40hr week AND no open houses are on the weekend.

With an hour of our meeting my email inbox was getting filled up with properties from Susan, if I liked it she would book an appointment to see it. Finally I was now getting to view properties, getting to see the various neighborhoods and learning more about the city. Granted some looked great online and were disappointing in person but that is not what this post is about. Finally I found a place that I liked and then asked Sue P to extend the contract so that Susan L could take me furniture shopping.

Shopping for the New Place
I believe I failed to mention that Susan L is this tiny dynamo and no where was that more obvious than when it came to shopping. In five hours we managed to get; fridge, bed, couch, coffee table, easy chair, dining table, Ikea for the dishes, vacuum cleaner, rice cooker, microwave and a few other things I have lost track off. I have also lost track of the dizzying number of stores she took me to. Here is what I learned from her - do not accept the ticket price, ask them what is the best price they can do. If you see something at one store get the best price quote on it along with item name, number along with phone number and name of contact so you can call and order it over the phone to have it delievered. After I was gently chastised for accepting a price I decided to zip my lips and let her negotiate everything for me and she saved me a ton of money :-)

Overall
My overall experience with Perth Orientation Services was very positive although I did not use their full range of services I would highly recommend them to anyone and everyone moving to Perth. They know the area inside out and they know everything you need to do to get established here. I really wish my company would utilize their services for other international relocations because the reality of Perth is that it is a very difficult and frustrating place to settle into. When you come from a place like North America you know the way things should be/could be and none of them are that way here - so when a native or long time Perth dweller looks at you and goes "I do not understand why you cannot find a place to live it is so easy" and you just want to scream in frustration at their obtuseness its nice to have the staff at Perth Orientation Services helping you through it. Granted you could do it alone - (you could also extract your own impacted wisdom teeth with a pair of pliers and a bit of string) but I would not advise it.