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Do you know why they didn’t insure? Because they were thinking: “It will never happen to me”. And why were they thinking that? Because their town or suburb has never experienced anything even remotely resembling the horrible destructive fires that we’re seeing now all over Victoria - or that happened too long ago and was forgotten.

Honestly, before the bushfire crisis, could you imagine in your wildest dreams Daylesford covered with smoke? That Belgrave and Warburton will have to be defended by firemen? People were under impression that they were safe, that’s why they didn’t have fire insurance.

How about the newcomers, what chance did they have of finding out whether or not their suburb is in fire danger? At least people who have lived in the country long enough had a chance of hearing and remembering similar fires in the past, whereas expats really had no chance of knowing. They were happy that their new house is surrounded by beautiful nature and were enjoying the views, surely not thinking what are the odds their house will burn to the ground one day.

But now our eyes have opened. Have a look at the list linked here, you can find there all the places that are burning or in danger of burning - click here and scroll down to the title Bushfire Affected Areas/Locations. If you live in one of them, don’t think too long, go and get your house insured. If you live close to a place mentioned in this list, go and get fire insurance. Yes, the insurance companies are wiser now - they suddenly realized that bushfires have a better chance of happening than they thought, and raised the premium. Don’t let that stop you because you can’t afford to not have insurance.

I think that it’s OK not to have insurance for things that you can replace. Not having your navigation system in the car insured is fine by me. Not having your CD or MP3 player in the car is not a problem. But not having your car insured is not fine (especially a new car) - can you afford to replace it, should it get damaged badly? And even if you can replace a car - can you afford to rebuild a house with your own money? You also need a place to live, can you afford to pay the rent while you are rebuilding a destroyed house?

Don’t leave the future of your family to chance. We have been warned.

Is you home insured for bushfire? Since when? Or why did you decide to not insure?

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I want to punch in the face every one of the real estate vultures for trying to buy land for less than it’s worth in the disaster areas like Kinglake and Marysville, using other people’s misery to their advantage. Those pricks just make me sick, trying to build wealth on dead bodies.

I have put together a list of resources for people who want to help. Help doesn’t necessarily mean money - it can be blood, clothes, blankets or furniture, every little bit counts.

If you’d like to help the fire victims, here is what you can do:

1. Donate to the Salvation Army

Why? They provide support, counseling and financial assistance to the victims. They give people money to buy clothing and other personal necessities for themselves and their families. Their volunteers provide food and refreshments to our fire fighters. They help in hundreds of places in many ways and they need us. If you need another reason to donate, donations are tax deductible.

Donate money - call 137258 from Australia or visit http://www.salvos.org.au

Donate goods - blankets, furniture and clothing, at Salvation Army collection points or fill the online collection form.

2. Donate to the Australian Red Cross

Donate blood - call 13 14 95 to make an appointment.

Donate money to the Red Cross State Government Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund, here is how:

- Call 1800 811 700 to donate on the phone

- Make a Direct Deposit to National Australia Bank: Name Victorian Bushfire Relief Fund - BSB 082-001, Account number 860-046-797

- Make a Direct Deposit to Westpac: Name Victorian Bushfire Relief Appeal - BSB 033688 - Account Number: 379004

3. Offer accommodation and wildlife assistance.
ABC Melbourne created a page with a number of ways how you can help the bushfire victims here.

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Now it was time to think about a car. Not for commuting, but for exploring. I think that the public transport in Melbourne is great and I have been using it a lot, but both my partner and I love the outdoors. So to be able to properly explore our new beautiful surroundings we had to have a car and choosing one became our next project.

Finding a car online was easy - getting there to take it for a test drive was not so easy. The absurd thing is, that in Melbourne you need a car to buy a car. A lot of car sellers are located in places unreachable by public transport. To them it makes sense - the further away from the center, the cheaper the rent is, but to us it was a nightmare. The place where we bought our car was 2 hours away by train and then we had to call someone from the car agency to come and pick us up. When we stood there waiting for him, a thought had crossed my mind - if he won’t come, we have just wasted 4 hours commuting, for nothing.

With a car, things looked much better. Our dog was released from the quarantine and the three of us started to really enjoy this beautiful country, introduced ourselves to bushwalking, went camping on weekends and visited many beautiful nature spots. We had a great time before it was time to think about moving home again, 6 months passed really quickly.

Contrary to my expectations, searching for the second rental was much harder. I was working full time and could only go through the ads in the evening. There weren’t many houses available; the demand for rentals was at its peak. Most of the properties I rang about were already let, and others didn’t accept pets. Many inspections were scheduled in the middle of working day and I had to get out of work to see those houses, which meant that I had to stay and work later that day, when I needed that time to keep looking for more houses.

Initially I thought that I could just apply for any house and then, if they accept me as a tenant go and have a look, to me it would have been a huge time saver. I mean - why bother looking at a house if you don’t end up getting the chance to rent it. However, it turned out to be illegal to apply for a property one didn’t inspect. No shortcuts.

Most of the inspections I went to looked like auctions. There was a crowd of 30-40 waiting outside the door for the agent to arrive and let them in. People were snatching the application forms from the agent’s hand, rushing to fill and submit them on the spot, competing for a place to live. Seeing this whole situation made me feel so powerless, even desperate.

The story goes on, come back and find out how my house hunting ended.

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One day I was going through ads in the local newspaper and saw a couple houses advertised for rent. There was one particular house that “jumped at me” because it was only a 6 month lease (normally the houses are let for a year). I called the agent, he said that the landlord didn’t mind pets, then we met and he drove us to inspect the house. It was a big, nice looking house with shiny polished floorboards and the rent was sensible.

Renting for only 6 months also made sense: on one hand we wanted to get out of the tiny hotel room, on the other we didn’t want to commit to a year-long lease in that area. The landlord had difficulty finding a tenant for only 6 months because most people don’t like the idea of moving twice a year and once we said: “we’ll take it”, the agent looked very happy.

It sure wasn’t the house of my dreams. The area wasn’t the safest or the friendliest. The street outside our windows was very busy and the noise never stopped, day or night. It was very hot in summer and freezing when the temperature was dropping. Still, the location was close to the tram, the train station, the shops, the market, and that was important. You have to start somewhere.

Another reason why I think we were lucky to find that house is that all the estate agencies expect to see a renting history. They expect references from the previous renting agency, referees to verify that you’re of good character, pay slips to see that you’re earning a stable income, bills with previous address to make sure you’re not homeless and so on.

We had none. A couple in their thirties, who have been 2 weeks in the country, don’t have even a debit card yet (because it’s still being processed), no mobile phone, no car, no job, nothing. The only thing we had was a statement from the bank with the amount we transferred into our account and lucky for us it was enough to convince our desperate landlord that we can afford the rent.

I will always remember the day we moved, because moving home has never been easier. I don’t think there are many people who can move home in a taxi All we had to do was transporting two suitcases and that was it, for better or worse. Initially we had no bed to sleep in (or even a chair to sit on), and the first couple of nights were spent on the floor. We were sleeping on a pile of clothes and towels. I don’t know which part was worse, sleeping on the floor or being stuck with a dial up Internet before Telstra got around to connecting our landline and broadband. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have one Spartan bone in me and am used to comfortable living - but sometimes circumstances are just getting a little out of hand.

I kept on looking for a job, sending resumes and going to interviews. Three weeks in Australia and I found myself an employer. Again, it wasn’t easy because I couldn’t provide referees in the country and all my references were from overseas, but I found a company that searched for someone with my exact qualifications and experience, and after 3 interviews and a phone call to my previous boss I was hired!

To be continued – do come back for the rest of my story, or subscribe and get it to your email.

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My partner and I came to Australia carrying nothing but two suitcases. It was a conscious decision; we were starting to build a life here - from scratch. With some money in the bank transferred from overseas, a dog in the quarantine, a lot of dreams to travel and see different places and the determination - to make it here, to never go back with our tail between our legs.

Our plane has landed in Melbourne late October 2006 and I remember walking through the anxious crowd anticipating their friends and relatives, agents carrying signs “Johansson family”, “Jeff Baker” and knowing - no one is waiting for us. We’re on our own in strange country where we don’t know anyone.

A taxi took us to the hotel where we were staying. Initially the plan was to find and rent a house via Internet from overseas, but it was just too hard to do. Even though we compared the prices and knew that hotels are more expensive than rentals, the real estate agencies we contacted didn’t want to help people from overseas, who are physically not in the country yet, to rent a house in Melbourne and we were left with the only option - hotels.

Searching for an affordable hotel we have found a decently looking one in Preston (one of the Melbourne’s northern suburbs), it was certainly affordable and close enough to the train station so that we could easily get to the city or the quarantine station to visit our dog. When we got there and saw the hotel with our own eyes, the pictures were a bit too optimistic. It looked pretty depressing and the room was tiny, the bed, little fridge and the little desk took pretty much all the space. What to do, you get what you pay for!

First purchase in Australia? A power adapter for my laptop and an Internet account - to get in touch with the family overseas and be able to begin my house and job search. With no mobile phone or car, both were kind of tricky. I quickly realized that in Australia a car is a must, there are places where you literally can’t get without it. Walking is nice, but 20 minutes of carrying your groceries from the market are quickly putting you off eating :). Calling 10 estate agencies about the houses for rent on the payphone in the middle of a busy street are not my idea of fun either.

It took me about two weeks to understand how renting a house works in Australia. In the beginning I was very surprised that the real estate agents were reluctant to help prospective tenants, and that a person couldn’t just walk through the door, state that they were looking to rent a house and expect the agents to quickly find a suitable home. But hey, bitching never really helped anyone and I had to quickly learn how things are done in Australia.

This is not nearly the end of it - expect part 2 a couple of days. Meanwhile, why not subscribe and get it to your email?

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1) Lawn mower. Chances are that if you haven’t lived in your own home, you never owned a mower, most people living in rentals just rent mowers twice a year to tidy up for landlord’s inspection. The same is true about the people living in their parent’s house; they never had to buy a mower because there already is one in the household.
Cost: prices start at $200

2) Lawn trimmer. Same as mower, you can rarely find a renter who owns a trimmer because it’s a tool they would rarely use, and they are right: why own another object cluttering the garage, if you can rent one. But when it’s your own home and you want the loan / nature strip to look nice and tidy, it’s impossible without having a loan trimmer handy.
Cost: prices start at $120

3) Leaf blower. If you have a large block of land and a couple of mature trees on it, you will be glad you bought it. Getting the leaves off your yard and the driveway in any other way takes forever.
Cost: prices start at $170

3) Power drill with bit sets. The best thing is to have it before you actually move because it’s an awesome help in both disassembling and assembling the furniture before and after the move. Once settled in your new house, every time there is a picture that needs hanging or a hook that needs attaching, you will thank yourself for getting that power drill. It is virtually impossible to maintain a house without one.
Cost: prices start at $180

4) Step ladder - to be able to change light globes, change batteries in smoke alarms, clean gutters, etc.
Cost: prices start at $100

5) Secateurs, rakes, shovel, garden hose and watering can.
Taking care of garden of any size is impossible without these tools. Trimming tree branches, trimming the bushes, cleaning the yard and watering the plants will quickly become your weekly activities and the need for these tools will become obvious.
Cost: all together around $130 minimum

6) Outdoor furniture. After the garden takes shape, to enjoy and admire it you will need at least a bench to sit on.
Cost: a bench from $70 up, a set of table and 4 chairs from $200 up

Total amount

I could add more things to this list, but the idea here is to just start with the bare minimum. Let’s do the sums – the total amount of “new home expenses” roughly comes to $1000 - $1100.

What else do you think should be on this list? What does your own experience suggest?

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How to minimize it: Along with paid reports, there is loads of free information such as median prices per suburb or suburb profile. Don’t pay for what you can get for free, check in google first and then if you must buy that information, shop around and get the best value for money, because many companies provide similar reports for a range of prices.

Expense: Pre-purchase advice. Personally, I think that it is a must for any first-time home buyers, which is why I don’t recommend minimizing this expense. To me it was worth every cent and saved me from what could have been a “big oops”. If you have no idea what pre-purchase advice is, the explanation is here.

Expense: Building/Pest inspections. Once your offer has been accepted (if buying via private sale) or prior to the auction you may (and should) want to have the building and pest inspectors check the house.

How to minimize it: Again, I don’t suggest just skipping the inspections to minimize your costs because we’re talking about a major, maybe the biggest investment you will ever make in your life. The only way to minimize this expense is to ask the vendor/estate agents whether or not anyone else has already done the inspections and maybe they will show you the reports (not very likely, but worth a shot).

Expense: Cooling off fee. If so happens that you’ve signed an offer for a house, it was accepted by the vendor and you decide to cool off for whatever reason, there is a fee you’ll have to pay. In Victoria it is $100 or 0.2% of the purchase price, whichever is more.

How to minimize it: Don’t cool off What I really mean is be wise and take time to think about the offer you’re making, be completely sure that you can and want to buy that house.

Expense: Internet access. The Internet is an indispensable tool and will help a lot in the property research. Many people use the Internet only to check their emails and thus are happy with smaller download limits. However, looking for properties online involves going through a lot of pictures and that may cause your usage exceed the download limit.

How to minimize it: To avoid penalties for excessive downloads upgrade your package to a higher download limit. It will cost extra, but the penalty rates are usually more expensive.

Expense: a notebook or a folder to keep all your records and all the information regarding researched houses organized.

Expense: Literature. There are many books written about the house-buying process, including the negotiation of a price and you mat want to consider such book a good investment.

How to minimize it: I have written a pretty decent break-down of the house-buying process, try reading it first and then decide whether or not you’d need another book Start at part 1 and keep on reading, part 5 is the last one.

Have I missed any of the house-hunting expenses? Do you have anything to add to this list? I’d love to hear from you.

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Here they are:

Expense: Newspapers. Not everyone is friends with the Internet and many people prefer to go through ads in a newspaper. Another reason to check the newspaper ads is to find houses for sale by owners (as opposed to the estate agents). Advertising on the Internet is very expensive for the owners (I have heard of $600 for a month of running the ad on a high-profile real estate website) and they prefer to advertise in the newspapers because it’s cheaper.

How to minimize it: Get a subscription. It is possible to subscribe for weekends only and still get the newspapers cheaper and delivered to your door.

Expense: Phone calls to agents. As a part of the research (or due diligence, as investors call it) you will be ringing the estate agents to find out all sorts of details you’d like to know (how much land is there, what is the price-range, when is the next inspection, etc), anything that is not in the ad.

How to minimize it: the best way is to have a notebook where you write down all the information you have about all the houses you’re considering. Also a good idea is to have a list of questions before your eyes when talking to the agent. This way you won’t forget things and won’t have to call the agent twice about the same house.

Expense: Petrol. You will go to a lot of inspections and chances are that you will drive to most of them. That means that you’ll use a lot of petrol and it’s a considerable expense.

How to minimize it: although most of the inspections are during weekends, you don’t have to buy petrol in the weekend when it’s the dearest. Try to fill up on Wednesday, before the prices start to climb and get to their peak on Saturday/Sunday. You could also try and group the inspections by location, if possible, so that you could inspect several properties in the same suburb while you’re there. It will reduce the distances you drive and thus save you time and money.

Hang on, part 2 is coming with the rest of expenses and ways to reduce them. Subscribe and you won’t miss it.

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