May 21, 2025 • 49 mins
Moving to New Zealand and need a place to live?
In this episode, I break down exactly how we secured a rental — from prepping overseas to impressing agents and landlords once we arrived. 🏡
✨ Whether you're planning your move or already on the ground, these tips will help you stand out in a competitive market.
🎙️ Listen now and feel more confident in your relocation journey!
#MovingToNZ #NewZealandRentalTips #ExpatLife #RelocationAdvice #NZRentals #MovingAbroad #KiwiLife
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
There are over 100,000 people whoimmigrate to New Zealand every year with
the intention to make New Zealand theirhome, leaving behind everything they
know as normal day-to-day life and havingto learn new ways of doing things, new
norms, new cultures, and different values.
There are many people who struggle withthis transition and find it challenging
(00:25):
to adjust and settle so they cancall and make New Zealand their home.
The purpose of this podcast is for meto share my journey and our challenges
with the hope that you can learn from meand my family and have a softer landing.
There will be good days and baddays, but with time, more good days.
I believe we have made theright choice for our family.
(00:47):
I want to try and help you do the same,but hopefully with a softer landing.
This is Soft Landing and Iam your host, Brett Colette.
Welcome to this podcast, designed foranyone thinking about preparing for, or
who has just immigrated to New Zealand.
Subscribe now so you never miss an episodedrawing from his personal experience.
(01:09):
This series will guide you throughthe process of preparing for your
move and helping you navigatethe challenges of immigration.
Hello everyone.
It's nice to have you join meand welcome back to those that
have been listening regularly.
And for those of you that haven't,listened to my podcast before, welcome.
it's nice to have you, you, listen.
(01:31):
And I, will ask, if you haven't listenedto any of my other podcasts, and I know
a lot of the other guys that have beenlistening regularly probably think,
oh, geez, he's asking this again.
But I have been trying to do thepodcast in chronological order.
So I've been trying to tell my journeyfrom beginning to end, and it does
make sense if you try listen to themfrom number one in chronological order.
So please go back and listento number one, and try it.
(01:53):
Just get a better understanding of whoI am and the journey we've gone through
and why I am sharing this information andwhy I'm trying to try and help everybody
else out there that is, is looking tomove to New Zealand and immigrate here,
to, have a softer landing and to learnfrom us and to do better than us, and
help just make New Zealand home quicker.
(02:14):
So that's really the whole purpose.
So just asking if you haven'tlistened to any of those, please
go back to number one, but for.
What I was thinking of talkingabout today, it's, a little bit more
one of those practical podcasts.
Again.
So many people ask me or they tell meit's so difficult and so worrying, about
getting a rental and actually gettinga, place to, to live in New Zealand.
(02:40):
I know a big thing that was on theback of my mind, and that's why we were
trying to get a rental secured beforewe even came across is you want a home.
You want a place that you know youcan have a roof over your head,
especially if you've got a family tojust know that you've got a place of,
your own to be able to just feel safe.
And, it's sometimes very difficult.
(03:02):
Not knowing the process, especiallylike us, we, we haven't rented much in
our life until we moved to New Zealand.
We were lucky back home.
we were always able to own ourown home, so this whole renting
thing was a whole new story.
Also, the renting in New Zealand isdifferent to the way it is back home.
I can only refer to back toSouth Africa and what it was
(03:24):
like renting in South Africa.
obviously from experience of beingon the other side of the fence, I was
the landlord renting out to others,but the process was different and the
way we did it was different to what itis here, so it is a little different.
but one thing that we havelearned in the two and a bit
years that we've been here is.
(03:44):
What's helped us securerentals on a regular basis.
We've been in four rentals now ina space of, just over two years.
and with all four that we've appliedfor, we've been lucky where we've
actually been approved on every singleone of them, which has been great.
So there must be somemethod to tomorrow or.
Something positive to the,way that we've been doing it.
(04:07):
I, really gotta give alot of thanks to my wife.
It's really her, doing a lot of theresearch and putting in a lot of the
efforts, to make sure that we, arefollowing a process and documenting and
sharing in such a way that it's workingfor us and helping us secure our rentals.
So to try and answer that questionto a lot of people is, how do
I go about getting a rainfall?
How do I secure a rainfall?
(04:29):
what do I have to look into?
What, are the challenges?
how do I make sure I can get, myself or myfamily a home when we get to New Zealand?
So that's what I'm really gonnatry and talk through today.
I can only talk from a standpoint of uslooking for homes for a family of four.
I'm not gonna go intothe actual detail of.
The, budgeting and amount you wouldpay per week and, the different
(04:52):
places in New Zealand and thecosts and everything like that.
I have done a separate podcast on,costs and living expenses, so I did
touch on it a little bit there when Ispoke more about the financial side.
This is more about the processand how you go about securing that
wrinkle and what you can start doingwhen you're already back home still.
In our case in South Africa, before weeven left to come to New Zealand, what you
(05:13):
can prepare for, what you can already getin place to try and fast track and help
you secure the rental once you get here.
and that would apply for anycountry that you're coming from.
It's a lot of effort that you can putinto to preparing and getting templates,
et cetera, done before you arrive.
But I'm gonna give a little bitof a overview of our process,
what's worked for us, how we wentabout securing the, wrinkles.
(05:36):
What I have done is I've sat downwith my wife and I've got a, so
you might hear paper flipping here.
I've taken a lot of notes from her.
as I said, I can only thank her.
She's been very closeto this process, for us.
And, I really relied on her a lotand it's, all the, effort she's
put in and everything she's done.
really to make sure that we'vebeen able to secure a home, four
(05:56):
times now in the last two years.
So that's why I had totake notes from her.
So I'm gonna try and refer to my notesall the time so that I don't miss, any
of the points that she wanted to share.
The reason I didn't get her on the podcastand, try get it to almost do like an
interview style is, one of the thingsthat you do find a bit of a challenge when
you've moved across here with a familyis we don't have a support structure.
(06:17):
And what I mean by that is,we've got our kids that are,
especially my daughter who's five.
To try and do a half an hour,40 minute podcast where both
parents are locked behind a closeddoor that's never gonna work.
The five-year-old will neverleave us, alone for long enough.
So to We don't have a mom or, when I saymom, my mom, a granny or a grandpa, or a,
(06:42):
Or an uncle that we can call onto say, Hey, can we leave them
with you for an hour or two sothat we can get all this done?
We don't have that luxury.
so that's what I meanby support structure.
So that's why I rather sat with my wife,took down the notes, and that's why I'm
trying to convey all this information.
So starting in the beginning, theone of the biggest things that you're
going to need is what we found iscritical is here in New Zealand.
(07:05):
A lot of stuff is paperless.
A lot of stuff is, digital.
It's online.
They do it with apps.
So we come from South Africa wherea lot of it, a lot of documentation
and, rental agreements and everything.
I think they're moving towards,applications and online, apps, but
still a lot of stuff was even done.
(07:25):
With, actual paperwork.
So they would either print it out andstill do the old school way of doing it,
as hard copy, or they would email you adocument and you would still physically
sign that and email it back and forward.
Whereas here, one of the biggerdifferences was they have portals,
they have everything online.
It's all digital signatures, digitalinformation that gets uploaded.
So everything is a lot more streamlinedand a lot more online and digital.
(07:48):
So with that in mind, oneof the biggest things that.
We feel would help is if you arecoming across and landing in country
and in that first few weeks you'retrying to sort out a rental and
a home for you or your family.
If you need a laptop, you need some.
Sort of computer to be able to work on.
So if you're staying with friends,you've gotta have access to a
(08:10):
computer that you can use andthat's connected to the internet.
Or you've gotta have your own laptop sothat you can connect it and get online.
So you can start doing a lot of this workonline digitally to get a, rental secured.
So that's one thing just to keep in mind.
So maybe it's the company you're startingwith and within, you'll be able to use
that laptop straight away, that's fine.
(08:31):
But just bear in mind.
Sometimes you delay starting withthe company, so you've got a week
or so to try and settle your familyand get everything sorted out.
You're going to need a computer andto be online in that first, week.
Also, what I'll start talking throughis all the templates and everything
that you'll want and the informationyou'll need to gather and put together.
A lot of that you can start prepping.
(08:53):
In your home country beforeyou move to New Zealand.
So you can already get a lot of thatinformation digitally and uploaded and
ready so that you bring it across andit's ready for you here in New Zealand.
So if you don't have a laptop thatyou're gonna be bringing across and
you're gonna use a friend's laptopor computer, or you're gonna wait for
the company to give you a computer orwhatever on this side, at least get
all your digital stuff either saved ona USB stick or like we did, we got, a.
(09:19):
Family Google Drive.
so we would upload all our digitalcontent to, our family go Google Drive.
So both my wife and I have access to it.
and it was just a good way to haveaccess to all our digital contact
and information that we need.
And considering you going through theimmigration per, process, a lot of that
information you had to collect for yourvisas and everything anyway, so you've
(09:40):
gone through all that effort to collectall that information and collateral.
so to me it just makes sense.
Create that Google Drive, start organizingall your information, like copies
of passports, driver's licenses, anyreference letter, all that kind of stuff.
You could really start uploadingit onto the, Google Drive and
(10:02):
have it in digital format.
another thing is having digitalsignatures uploaded and ready.
So it's all that information,that you could have digitally
available, on a Google Drive.
So that's one of the first thingsyou would want to think about.
What you would want to do is whenyou're still, and what we did when we're
still back in South Africa, there was acouple of sites that we could go on to
start looking at rentals and what wasavailable, in New Zealand and the relevant
(10:25):
areas we're considering moving to.
So Trade Me was one of thesites that we would go to.
Another one was Real Estate, and thereare two others is one roof and my rent.
So there's four different sites thatwe know of that you could go to.
We predominantly worked offof Trade Me and Real estate.
Those were the two that we worked off of.
We didn't really work off much on oneroof or my rent, but those are the other
(10:47):
sites that you can go to with TradeMe It, does more than just property.
So you gotta go to the actual propertysection of Trade Me and when we were
back in South Africa a year, we couldgo view all the rentals and all the
information about the rentals, but ifyou wanted to apply for a rental when
you were still back in your home country.
With, trademe, you wouldneed a New Zealand telephone
(11:10):
number to be able to do that.
what we did to get around that is wedid log a support call when we were
still back in South Africa with trademeand explained to them our situation and
they did give us the relevant access orpermissions to be able to, actually even
go as far as applying for a rental whilewe're still in our home country without
(11:30):
having a New Zealand telephone number.
So it is possible, it just means you needto, Contact them and, do a little bit
more to be able to get it all sorted outwhile you still in your home country.
Real estate was fine though.
We could access and get into everythingthat we wanted to from South Africa.
There wasn't a problem there,without having all the details that
we would only be able to get oncewe were in country, in New Zealand.
(11:51):
What we did do, if you haven't heard someof our other podcasts, is we did apply
for a rental property and we secured itwhen we were still back in South Africa.
The way we did that is we did gothrough trademe, we did log the
support call, so we had all therelevant access, but what we did is,
and I'll talk through the process, is.
We secured the rental while wewere there by getting a friend
(12:12):
of ours in country in New Zealandto go through and view it for us.
And then we went through thewhole process that I'm gonna talk
through now to actually secure therental, pay the bond, et cetera.
Now if you've listened to myother podcast, in hindsight, we
probably wouldn't have gone aheadand secured a rental when we
were still in our home country.
Because as much as a friend can view itfor you and as much as you can do your
(12:33):
research online, when we actually got incountry and looked at the relevant area
and the schools and everything like that.
It was different and we did end upchanging our mind and we did end up
moving to a different area than whatwe originally thought we would stay in
when we were still back in South Africa.
So we did waste a bit of moneymoving around between our rentals.
Yeah.
(12:53):
Our first rental.
That wasn't a choice, that was by,forces of nature and having a flood.
Yep.
That happens.
the second one was.
We didn't, we ended up in an areathat we actually didn't really like.
So we did break that lease and I'lltalk through how you can break a lease
as well to eventually move to the areathat we wanna be in that is, zoned for
(13:14):
the schools that we wanted for our kids.
I don't know, in hindsight, I'd probablywait until you in country to be able to.
Start actually going around and lookingat the different rentals and finding
a place that you would like, but youcan do a lot of that prep work when
you're still back in your home country.
IE you can start looking at the area,start looking at the costs for the
(13:34):
different rentals, the different sizehomes that you need for your family.
In whichever area you'repotentially looking in.
so you can do a lot of thatresearch online already.
When you do go to trade me or realestate and you start looking at the
properties, it also give you a goodwrite up about the properties so you
can start getting a feel and photosto start seeing what they look like.
(13:55):
But it'll also.
I don't think Trade Me does it,but I know real estate does it.
If you, scroll further down, it'llstart giving you schools that are
zoned for particular areas so that youcould also then start thinking about
which potential schools you wouldwant your kid, if you've got kids you
would want them to be enrolled in.
and.
You gotta look at, the public schoolsare zoned for particular areas.
(14:15):
So you would want to find a rentalin the area, that you, want to
send your kids to school to, soyou're zoned for those areas.
If it's a private school,semi-private, it is a different story.
But there's a whole notherprocess of getting your kids into
semi-private and private schools.
'cause they can be picky onwho they're allowing, whereas.
A public school you are zoned andthey would allow you in, but you need
(14:36):
to be zoned and living in that area.
So getting back to it, yeah.
Those are the four different sitesthat you would want to look on,
with the Trade Me or real estate.
Yeah.
First thing is obviously lookingat the, area that you're zoned for
with schooling, if you've got kids,'cause that's an important thing.
What you've gotta remember ona lot of these sites, they do
use professional photographers.
(14:57):
The photos of the place may lookawesome, but when you actually do
a viewing, it can be a differentstory, a slightly different story.
So it is so importantyou've got to do a viewing.
Now, in our case, in our firstrental, we did get friends of
ours to go do the viewing for us.
so it's gotta be somebody that you cantrust and be willing to go and have
a look if you want to do it that way.
But otherwise, if you're doing aviewing yourself, there are gonna be
(15:20):
things that you want to look out for.
I'll talk through it a little bit later,but they do talk through healthy homes.
When you eventually get to sign yourtenant agreement or your, lease agreement,
but things you'll want to look at isyou, want to look that the house is
dry, that there's no mold to look behindyour curtains and stuff like that.
Make sure that there's no mold orwet patches or anything like that.
(15:42):
'cause that could be a bit of a concern.
a big thing for us was trying to finda home that had double glazed, windows.
that's just for heat, soit can be a lot warmer.
In the winter months, we are up inAuckland, which is meant to be a little
bit more north and be a little bit warmer.
So I can only imagine the more southyou go, it's probably even more crucial
that you have double, double glazing,and airtight windows and all the rest,
(16:07):
especially coming from South Africa.
our homes weren't, airtight.
I dunno how else to explain it, butyou'd probably hear the rustle of
the wind coming through the windows.
Whereas here, everythingseals really, tight.
in, especially in the newer builds, whichis important for the keeping the heat in.
You'll wanna look at your heatpumps or they refer to a heat
(16:27):
pump as an air conditioner.
Make sure that you've got one that cankeep the house warm or some sort of
heating to keep the, living area warm.
you'll see when you sign up the leaseagreement that they will do a healthy
homes assessment where they will tell youthat they've last checked, the insulation
and they've checked, for, the ventilationin the home and everything like that.
(16:52):
So you would wanna check that allof that has been done, but these
are things you just want to keep.
Keep in mind when you are actually havinga look at the home and, considering a
rental, which sometimes you won't pickup on the online pictures, et cetera.
So you, would wanna look atthat information that you over
and above, the schooling you.
(17:13):
You probably need to, no, I'llget to the Informationist now.
But once you've chosen a place thatyou want to stay at, so say you've
gone to real estate and you've founda few homes that you wanna look at,
you would actually go onto the websiteand you would actually click that.
You want to do a viewing, so you haveto register and book for a viewing.
What the agents do is they will giveyou certain dates where they generally
(17:34):
have a whole lot of people come throughall at once to view a particular home.
usually the viewing isn't long.
It's, probably a window of about a30 minutes to 40 minute viewing, and
they could, depending on how popularthat potential rainfall is, you could
have anywhere up to 20 differentfamilies all walking through the
home in that same 30 minute slot.
(17:56):
So it can be quite.
Competitive when you're choosinga home, depending on the area
that you're trying to look at,especially if it's sought after.
so once you've gone onto the, siteand you've, clicked on, you wanna
book a viewing, you would usually getan email back and you do everything
online with correspondence with agent.
They'll tell you the date you book inthe date, you'll then go through on
(18:19):
that date, and have a look at the home.
Important things to rememberis that if there, it is a
popular and a lot of them are.
rental area and there's alot of people viewing it.
You wanna stand out, you want to,you want the agent to remember you.
Okay?
a big thing that we try dear, and I knowit sounds, it could sound a bit silly,
(18:41):
but it's important when you arrive,make sure first impressions, mean a lot.
So the way you dress, don't, show up inyour, like your dressing gown type thing.
And I'm not saying you did that, but just.
Dress neat and tidy so that you lookpresentable, that you look, the part
somebody that's first impressions.
Oh yeah, they're a familythat's got it together.
(19:04):
so it's just the first impressions, howyou dress and how you portray yourself
when you, go through for that, viewing.
Also, when you do the viewing, make aneffort to go and introduce yourself to
the agent so that you can explain them.
Hi, I'm Brett Collette.
This is my family, da.
We are from South Africa,so that they know.
They, can pit a, face to the, what I'mgonna call the CV that they're gonna
(19:29):
look at later or the application so thatyou stand out and they can remember you.
That's why I said first impressions,the way you dress, but it's also
actually going and making thateffort of introducing yourself.
What we have done is over and aboveintroducing yourself and, worrying about
the first impressions and everything.
We did move across with two animals.
(19:49):
So we, we have, two cats that have movedacross with us, and I'll talk through a
little bit more in the podcast, shortly.
But if there are rentals.
A lot of them say, no petsin our experience still go
look at those properties.
Even if it says no pets.
(20:10):
Okay, what we've done is we go look atthem, but when we've introduced ourself
to the agent and when we've, we've spokento them doing that 30 minute viewing.
We've explained to them,we do have two pets.
We know that the advent saidno pets, but we do have two.
A lot of the time the agents say,fine, still put in the application,
(20:31):
and it'll be at the end of the day,at the discretion of the landlord.
It'll be up to the landlord.
Now, obviously, if they've got a wholelot of people to choose from and there's
a family that stands out, that is awesome,that meets all the financial criteria,
looks responsible, and I'll talk throughall the different criteria to consider.
And they don't have pets, they'reprobably gonna choose them over you, okay?
(20:53):
Because they will shortlistwho's good, but they're gonna
take their best candidate.
and if they really don't wantpets, they probably choose a family
that doesn't have pets over you.
But what.
We've had in our experience is bygoing and being upfront with the
agent, when we meet them for the firsttime and explain, we do have pets.
They've always told us well still apply.
(21:14):
And we, as I said, have been infour rentals now and in all four
we have been able to secure therental and we do have two cats.
and all of those rentals have beenadvertised as not pet friendly, but
yet we've still been able to secure it.
Even although we have pets, so I'mjust telling you, it can be done.
(21:34):
Okay?
So don't shy away and only look andfilter on the, websites by rentals that
are available for, pets and pet friendly.
You can look at the others,but you just need to be upfront
and just explain to them.
Some people have told us what they've doneas they haven't mentioned it to the agent
until they were at the application stage.
I don't agree with that.
(21:55):
They said that's what's worked for them.
I'm more of the opinion and that's howwe are is we are upfront and honest.
I think it comes across better where theycan see that for your personal branding,
it's somebody that they can trust.
It's somebody that's not hiding anythingand you're rather being upfront with them.
So that's worked for us.
With regards to the pet.
So yeah, first thingyou book the, viewing.
(22:19):
Yes.
You do feel like, it's a little bitof a, it's a mad rush with all these
families all going in that 30 minuteslot and a whole lot of people looking
at the one, one house and you cansee who you are all up against to
try and, be approved for, the rental.
'cause generally there's a lot offamilies that, all try all at once,
especially if it's in a particular area,where there's good schooling and stuff.
(22:40):
So yes, first impressions.
Make sure that you've introduced yourself.
You've got the, faceto face with the agent.
When you speak to the agent, also justexplain to them a little bit, give them
little nuggets about yourself, like wherea South African family, w how proud.
Just tell 'em a little bit about selves,whatever else neat, tidy you, what
you love about the home, just so thatyou can try stand and on they can.
(23:02):
Remember you, once you've seen theplace, the first thing you're going
to need to do is you're going toneed to go and put in an application.
What we've done is my wife has almostcreated what is a template called Our
Family cv, and she's created not onlyone for the family, but it's, she's
also created one for the animals.
And what I mean by this is ifyou, could go onto Google and you
(23:22):
can do a bit of a re a search.
and just search for cover letters.
And what she's done is she's tailoredthe cover letter to a rental CB template.
Okay?
So what she's put in there is shemakes sure that there's pictures
of our family, so there's, theycan see a visual of us as a family.
so over and above that firstimpressions is us introducing
(23:44):
ourselves Now when they actually getthe documentation that we're gonna.
Send through to them later, and I'lltalk you through how we do that.
They can also see thepicture of us and our family.
So that was important.
there, there was a site, when she did theGoogle search that does these templates.
I know you have to purchase them.
It's called.
Etsy, I think it is.
So it's ETSY is a templates, sitethat my wife actually went to.
(24:08):
She didn't purchase the, templates, butshe looked at some of these and they
grayed out a little, but it gave her anidea of how to format, the templates.
Okay.
So that, that is one ofthe sites you can look at.
So she made sure it had picturesof our family to also make sure
that it had information about us.
So it spoke a little bit to ourvalues as a family, what our
interests are, what's important to us.
(24:31):
So it was just, it's moretrying to advertise your family.
Why choose us, why we are abetter choice than anybody else.
Not obviously saying it to that degree,but it's what they're trying to answer.
So you're almost trying to putyourself in the agent or the landlords.
Shoes and try understand what would theywant in a person renting their, the home.
They want a family that's stable.
They want somebodythat's got stable income.
(24:53):
They want somebody that has goodvalues that'll look after the
home, that will make sure thatthe, basic maintenance is done.
So if a light bulb, goes,they'll replace the light bulb.
They'll make sure that it's kept neatand tidy and everything goes wrong.
They'll make sure to contact the,agents to make sure everything's.
Kept in the home and fixed and repaired,so you won't just let the house run down.
(25:15):
So it's important.
That's what they're probably looking for.
So you want to try, give that CV to givea good overview of you and your family.
You also wanna, in the cv, do alittle bit of a writeup and explain
why are we interested in their home?
What did we like about their home?
So you could talk to, obviouslythere's schools in the area
that you liked for your kids.
You could talk about.
the, parks in the area that you, youcould talk about, maybe it had an outside
(25:38):
patio area that was very important toyou 'cause you like, having barbecues
outside with your family, whatever it is.
But just try and talk a littlebit about what you liked about the
house and then like I mentioned,you'll want to talk about.
Why you are responsible,why you're, the right fan.
Choose, and you could do that withsome of the, reference letters
(25:59):
that you've potentially worked on.
And I'll talk through those where you'vegot referrals and writeups from people.
It could be family, it could be,other agencies that you've worked
with back home in your home country.
But just write up talkingto your character and how
you are responsible and how.
You are a house proud type of peopleand that you would look after the home.
(26:20):
So just talk to all of that in yourcv so it gives a good overview of
you, your family, what's importantto you, why you want this home, and
why they would wanna choose you.
What my wife did, one step further isnot only write up about our family and
create this template, with, making sureall this information was in it, she then
added on a separate page to that cv just.
(26:41):
Around our pets.
So she again, took some pictures of thetwo cats, their names explained that
we are responsible pet owners and howwe've got them all vaccinated, and how
they're so important to us that we'vebrought them all the way from South Africa
and that they've really helped, with.
our helping our kids settle and how, justwriting up a little bit about how we good
(27:05):
pet owners and how we do look after thepets and we make sure that they've got
scratch posts and everything like that sothey won't destroy anything in the home.
So you just talk through that.
So it's a bit of a CV over and above that.
What you can also do if you've got pets.
So we did mention to theagency when we were there.
The 30 minute viewing, and then weobviously adding it into the cv.
(27:27):
But what we also did is we mentionedto them that we'd even be willing
to, and again, this depends onyour budget, pay a little bit extra
because we know we've got pets.
And they didn't say thatthey, that pets were allowed.
So for example, in one of the rentals,we said we are prepared to pay an extra
$20 a week, because we now got pets.
Over and above, keeping theplace clean and everything else
(27:49):
we've written up, we are alsoprepared to pay a little bit more.
So that was somethingthat you, could also do.
a big thing is, again, dependson you and your budget.
We've also committed that if we moveout of a rental, we'll make sure that we
get the carpets and everything cleanedprofessionally because we've got pets
and I know they didn't want pets, sothat's another thing that we've mentioned
to them and put it in the writer.
(28:10):
So it just helps them see that we.
We definitely care and we have, the typeof character that we are house proud.
We will look after the home.
We are a reliable choice wheresomebody that will pay on time
and generally look after theirproperty even although we have pets.
(28:30):
Okay.
So, that's what you'd be puttingin this, template and this writeup.
or cv.
And this is what you can create whenyou're still back in your home country.
So don't leave it until you're here inNew Zealand and then you're in that first
week and you're trying to find a home andyou're now trying to write all this up.
Try do it before you even get on theplane and before you even get here,
use, Go onto these sites, go to lookat these, templates and these cover
(28:55):
letters and write that up already.
Reach out to people that, family members,get them to write up the reference
letters, while you're still in country.
So you've got those digitally alreadyand, signed off if we weren't renting in
South Africa, but we, did, rent out otherproperties and we did sell our property.
So we got our estate agent to writeup, a reference letter about us.
(29:19):
So we had it from.
Any estate agent that was not,that we were renting from them, but
that was selling our houses for us.
So they gave us likea character reference.
we got some family membersto write up about us.
You could get your manager oranybody to write up anybody that
could give you a good referral andreference and character reference.
Get those references all written upand get the templates all written up.
Now, obviously, when you applyfor properties here for Wrinkle.
(29:42):
You've now got that template.
You just have to tweaka few little things.
So what was specific that youliked about each specific rental?
Make it, customize it to that, orwhat was in the area or whatever else.
But you've got the bones tothe template already done and
ready before you even get here.
So that's a big thingthat you would want to do.
(30:02):
talking through now, if we carryon back with the process, you've
gone and you've done the viewing.
What you'll do is, because everything hereis pretty much via portals and online, the
agency will tell you if you did the rentaland you wanted to apply, you would now
need to go onto their portal and you wouldneed to, start applying for that rental.
And what that would mean is on the portal,it'll give you prompts of inputting all
(30:25):
your information that they're looking for.
So they would look for.
information around your finances andearnings and stuff like that, they
would look through, potentially theywould want some reference letters.
They just ask a little bit about youand your family and how many people
will be staying in the home, how manyvehicles would be parked at the home,
but you would follow the promptsand complete all that, information
online, post scene, the viewing.
(30:48):
Okay.
Important and what's worked well forus is the same day that we did the
viewing, we pushed to make sure wedid the application in the same day.
It just shows that you were eager andyou were, you really wanted the place
versus waiting a few days, consideringthere's also potentially 10, 20 other
(31:09):
families that are also applying.
You don't wanna be at the back ofthe queue, so you wanna be that.
First person that's applied.
So over and above the first impressions wespoke about introducing yourself, getting
a good writeup and CV and templatized,that you've got all your information about
you, your family, your pets, et cetera.
You also want to.
Follow it up by applying in the same day.
(31:31):
It just shows that you're eager,that you want the place that
much more than anybody else.
Okay?
So that's why we made surewe applied on the same day.
What you will also need to do isif you are applying for the rental
jointly, so my wife and I appliedfor all the rentals together.
You will both need a login to the portal.
You can't just do it on the one login.
(31:51):
Just keep that in mind.
You both have to create a loginbecause once they, if you do get
shortlisted and you do eventually getchosen, the tenancy agreement does
go through that portal and it wouldneed to go to each of you separately
to digitally sign via the portal.
So it would have to be sentto the one person first they
have to sign, and then it.
Goes through the workflow toautomatically get sent to the next
person they sign, and then the workflowtakes it back to the agency who gets
(32:14):
the, landlord to sign, et cetera.
But it's all done online andvia workflows, via the portal.
But you would both need a a, login.
I. So once you, go back that same day,apply, give them all the information.
Sometimes you will find on the portalwhen you're applying and you've got
the dropdowns and give them all theinformation they're looking for.
(32:35):
There may not be an option tobe able to upload your cv, the.
Template that I've spoken aboutor any reference letters and stuff
like that, but it's not a waste.
What we've done is we've gonethrough, uploaded all the
information that they've asked for.
Generally by this stage, youcan get an email address of the
agent that you're dealing with.
We then mail the agents, Post applyingonline via their portal and emailed them
(33:00):
and said, thank you so much for your time.
And you word it all in a nice wayand you then attach your reference
letters, your cvs, et cetera, and tellthem We have applied via your portal,
but please see additional informationregarding our family, regarding the
pets that I mentioned to you, and somereference letters, da, whatever else.
So you just that you're standing out that.
(33:22):
And putting in thatlittle bit more effort.
So send that to them directlyas well, but really don't delay.
Make sure you get it done in the sameday once you've applied on the portal.
And you've sent them all the information.
The agencies will go through all thedifferent applications that they've
had, and they generally shortlist, ifthere's been a lot of applicants, they'll
(33:43):
shortlist a handful of people and theywill pass that on to the landlord.
So the landlord will then havethe final say of which tenant
they potentially want to choose.
So that's why I was saying it would beimportant that one, you, we don't get to
deal with the landlord directly unlessyou are renting direct from the landlord.
We have not.
done any of our rentalsdirectly with the landlord.
(34:04):
We know of other people that have,we've always gone through agencies.
Okay.
so just the point I'm trying tomake is I can't talk to how it works
dealing directly with the landlord,and there's a lot of pros and cons with
dealing directly with the landlord.
we've spoken to some friends thathave dealt with a landlord directly
and you can get some storieswhere it hasn't worked out well.
(34:26):
They've cut corners.
Certain things like.
Way they've set up some stuff inthe home, like electrics and stuff.
It hasn't been done to code andhealth and safety is not as good.
But then I talked to some other friendsand they said they've dealt directly
with the landlord and they've beenable to save a little bit of money
and they've been able to stay forlonger and built a relationship with
the landlord so it could work us.
We chose to always deal with anagency 'cause it's more professional
(34:49):
and we just feel it safeguards us alittle bit as much as the landlord
gets safeguarded by using an agency.
So that, was our choice.
I can only talk from an agencyperspective getting back to it.
So they will then shortlist,send that off to the landlord.
The landlord will then have the final say.
You, if you do get declined, you'llget an email and they'll let you know.
(35:11):
we've been blessed and lucky.
We haven't been declined on once,so I don't know the actual post,
but I would imagine it's as easyas just a notification via mail.
All of this is done online.
All of it is done via a portal.
All our updates, get done via.
Email and the portal.
We found this process of doinga rental here in New Zealand.
It's quick.
You can get all of thisdone within a week.
(35:33):
So when you found a place you applyfor the viewing, from the time you
go view within that week, they'vealready got to the point of signing
the lease agreement, paying yourdeposit, your or your bond, and getting
your date to be able to move in.
So the process is very quickand it moves along very quickly.
So we hadn't, we didn't have to chasethe agency trying to phone them,
getting updates by just checkingyour email and going onto the portal.
(35:54):
Because it's so quick, we were gettingall the updates that we needed.
So once the landlord has made a decision,they'll go back to the agency and say,
okay, that's the family that we've chosen.
You'll be notified via email and theportal, from the agent, and they may give
you a call and say, you've been approved.
If you've been approved, that will kickoff the workflow again in the portal,
because now what'll happen is overand above the information, which was
(36:15):
the first phase, so that they could.
Choose which tenant they want to, take on.
They're now uploading the actuallease agreement to the portal, so
you'd have to read through the leaseagreement, all the terms and conditions,
the health and safety portion thatI spoke through, and you'd have to
actually sign the lease agreement.
It is all digitally signed.
So this is again where I toldyou it'll be important to have
(36:37):
a lot of your, you can do this.
Upfront when you're still inyour home country, get your,
signatures uploaded digitally.
Get all your references digitally,get everything in that digital format.
We used Google Cloud, so that's whereall our information was kept, but just
make sure you get all of that donebefore you get yours 'cause it just makes
life easier for you and less stressful.
So once you've read through the,lease agreement and you sign it
off, the big thing that you're goingto need to do is pay your bond.
(37:00):
What your bond is that's your deposit.
most places here they ask forfour weeks, rental as a bond.
So I. Let's use a nice round number.
Let's just say your, weeklyrainfall cost is a thousand dollars.
It'll be $4,000 that they'll ask youto pay for as a bond, and generally
over and above the bond, they alsoask for two weeks rainfall upfront.
(37:23):
So if it was a thousand dollars aweek, it's $4,000, you'd have to pay
for your bond and $2,000 you'd haveto pay for the two weeks upfront.
And then thereafter it'll be two $1,000,a week that goes off your account.
So it is a, lot of money to haveupfront, but again, as I said, I did a
different podcast on, living Expenses.
You can go into that one for more detail,but you'd get to the stage, you sign off
(37:47):
the tenancy agreement on the portal, you.
first, sign it all off and they'll giveyou details of where to pay the bond.
You pay the bond goes through to, it'snot kept by the landlord or the agency.
It's actually kept by atenancy, a government, tenant.
tenancy a agency, so it's tenant.conz, so they actually keep, it is not
(38:12):
an interest bearing account, so it doesget put into an account where there's no
interest, but they keep it safe for you.
And then when you plan on leaving.
the rental, whether it's you choosingor they choosing or whatever reason,
you would get your bond back so longas the place is in a good condition.
So you go through actually signingthe tenancy agreement, paying the
bond, then they choose that, they seethe money goes through, you're then
(38:35):
chosen, and then they'll give you adate of when you can actually move in.
So it's a really slick process.
the biggest thing is what I spoke to youabout getting your, getting standing out.
Just making sure you.
You are that much betterchoice than anybody else.
creating those templates, havingthat first impression, having those
(38:55):
conversations with them, I think that'simportant to try and help you secure it.
Big things, once you've got the tenancy,that first week that you actually move
into the property, an important thing is.
When you do that intro, assessmentof the property, make sure you take
(39:16):
photos of everything that you findthat is potentially not a hundred
percent right in the property.
So if you see certain a, like a nail inthe wall or a scratch and paint or a mark
on a carpet or a, I don't know, somethingthat's not quite right in any particular.
Take photos of everything and be veryparticular and detailed in that first
(39:37):
week and submitting it back to the agent.
The reason being, you want to know thatby the time you leave the rental, if they
come back and do an assessment to get yourbond back, that if they said, oh, there's
a mark on the carpet here, if you'dalready note that up front, you won't be.
There's no dispute.
There's no argumentthat you made that mark.
So make sure that first weekyou document everything.
(39:58):
Some agencies via a portal, they'llgive you a portal where you can upload
the photos directly to the portalin that first week of everything
that you, when you go round to everysingle room and you check for any.
Different like marks orproblems or anything like that.
If they don't have a portal for you todo that, just make sure you take all the
photos, put it in a document or something,and then mail it off to them just so
(40:20):
that you've got something in writingdigitally that you've checked everything
so there's no dispute, no argument whenyou finally move out of the property.
So that's something that'simportant for you too.
To do in that first week andmake sure you do that right.
The other thing that they also dowith the rentals here is once you've
secured your rental new state init, you will get a house assessment
(40:40):
or check done every quarter.
So every three months, aagency will contact you and
they'll wanna just do a, house.
A house check.
And just check that everything isstill in good working order, you
looking after the place, et cetera.
This was a bit of a tough one for us.
We do, we, at first I felt like itwas such an invasion of your privacy,
these people wanting to come andcheck in on, on, on, you and make
(41:03):
sure you, are doing everything yousaid you would be doing and you're
not doing anything wrong or whatever.
It just felt awkward to me, but you'vesince got used to it, especially if
you stay in the same rental for awhile, you get used to the agent.
we've actually built arelationship with her.
So it actually doesn't feel sobad and you get used to it after a
bit of time, but in the beginningit is little bit of a challenge.
(41:23):
What you will do is when they do thesechecks, they do give you warning.
so they usually give you about aweek's notice and tell you, look,
it's, time to do your quarterly check.
they do usually send you a checklistand say, these are the things, just
make sure that are, are in order.
Make sure the house is clean, make surethe toilet's clean, make sure there's
no washing lying around, so that they'llgive you all the little things just to
(41:43):
check and make sure are done before theyactually come through for, the house.
check.
A big thing here is they're verytrusting, so they may even tell you,
Hey, it's, gotta be done during the week.
They don't do these checks on theweekends, so it's from a Monday to Friday
working day that they'll do the checksthat, but they, will offer and say,
Hey, they can come through while you'reat work, and they'll let themselves in
a lot of the time, they either have akey or a lot of the houses here have a
(42:06):
digital code just to be able to begin.
So they'll offer to just comethrough without you at home.
That was a big no-no.
For us, it just, I just, it was hardenough having somebody come into
your home and you're feeling, you'rebeing checked up on, but then to let
somebody into your home when you're noteven there, no, it just blew my mind.
That wasn't gonna work for us, so we,would always arrange that we are there
when they came and did the check.
Also, we did have the twocats, so I was really worried.
(42:28):
If they let the cats out or anythinghad to happen, I didn't want that.
So we made sure we were homewhen they're doing the checks.
But just bear in mind, they dooffer, if you're okay with it,
they'll come into the home andeven check without you being there.
So the, those are probably theimportant things to think about
once you've got the rental, withthe checks that they're gonna do.
And that first week check,that's very important.
(42:49):
Maybe another thing I'll also just touchon, just because we've been through it as
well, I did say you can break your lease.
So one of the rentals we were in, wefound out within the first month that it
wasn't where we wanted to be area wise.
So as long as it's not a disputefrom either end, meaning from the
landlord or agency or yourselves,you, can break the lease.
There are penalties to breaking alease though, and it's usually written
(43:11):
up in your, it better be writtenup in your lease agreement for us.
For example, the one rental, whenwe broke the lease within the first
month, there was a, I think itworked out to about a $700, penalty
for breaking the lease early.
and there was some admincosts and stuff like that.
but the reason was weweren't happy in the area.
They understood it, and generallyrentals are sought after here, so
(43:33):
it's quite quick and easy for themto turn them over, to somebody else.
So the turnaround time and gettingit rented out to somebody else is
not too much of a problem for them.
But just bear in mind, that can hityour budget, if you wanted to break
a lease early, but it can be done.
I do know in some areas I've heard ofsome people, if they're not in a sort
after area, it can be difficult when youbreak the lease because the, they expect
(43:56):
you to find somebody else and you'llbe liable until you find somebody else.
so that could be a challenge.
I. Just be careful of that.
Us generally, the areaswe've, no, not generally.
The areas we've been in are soughtafter areas, so it wasn't difficult
for them to find somebody else.
It was just paying the penalty,that, we had on the lease agreement.
(44:17):
So you can get out ofthe lease if you need to.
I'm just trying to go back tothe notes and see if there's
anything else I've missed here.
so my wife's told us about the week.
That is so important.
She's told you, oh, if.
Like I said, we got outof the, tenancy agreement.
There was no dispute, but not that we'vehad this, but if there is a dispute from
either yourselves or the agency or thelandlord, there is a tenancy tribunal
(44:42):
here that you can go to either side.
And they handle any of those disputes.
So it's tennessee.gov nz so you canread up a little bit more there.
I can't talk to it becausewe haven't had a, dispute or
anything of those of that nature.
So I can't talk to it.
But there is.
a tribunal that you cango to that handles that.
So that is something that you can do.
(45:04):
But overall, I think as long as you'vegot a good writeup, a good CV with all
the information, you make sure that whenyou are actually looking for your rentals
and you follow their process online andyou've got a computer and everything
ready with all your templates, all yourreference letters, you can be that.
Much quicker than anybody elseto get your applications in.
(45:25):
Also, making sure your first impressionsare good when you actually see the
agent in that, that, first viewing,you introduce yourself, you follow
up with some emails with your cvsand your write-ups and everything
like that, and keep it professional.
You, you've got a really good chance ofbeing chosen over and above anybody else.
Also, making sure that you've got yourdeposits and everything ready, so if
(45:45):
you do get chosen, you can move quickly.
'cause they also wannaget somebody in quickly.
So if you're, You've got all your ducksin a row and got everything ready and
you can just pay your deposit quickly.
it also helps, making sure that you,can secure the rental so you can be
sure that you can, it's a horribleway to say it, but beat anybody else
and actually getting the rental.
(46:06):
'cause the market is, it's hot here.
A lot of people are tryingto get into the wrinkles.
A big thing we've also done before,but I've spoken about that in the
Living Expenses Podcast is cashflowthat can get affected by the bond.
So what I mean by that is if you'vemoved into a Wrinkle and you're
moving out of the Wrinkle, the bondhas been, I. Kept by the tenancy.
(46:29):
so what'll happen is you don'tget your bond back straight away.
So if you're trying to get into yournext wrinkle and you've gotta pay the
bond, you sometimes don't have the moneyavailable until you get your bond back.
People can negotiate and you can try workwith 'em and say, okay, once I've got that
bond back, I pay it and whatever else.
But what we've done is to be thatmore efficient and easier to deal
(46:50):
with is I have had my credit cardavailable where we paid the new bond
off my credit card while we waited forthe old bond to be paid back to us.
And then I just said my credit card,so they didn't have to wait and we
could be very quick and slick in makingsure that we could secure the rental.
So just watching your cashflow and just trying to see how
that works as well can help.
(47:10):
So that's all I can reallythink about for rentals.
I know it is a big thing for people andit's obviously, geez, you want a, home
for your family, especially if you'vegot kitties and everything to make sure
you've got something, secured and thatyou can feel, just that peace of mind
that you've got a home for your family.
It is a process.
It can be a bit of a pain, butespecially if you're doing it for
the first time and also with allthe checks and everything else.
(47:32):
But you get used to it and it can workif you just take some of these, tips
that I've shown you, try to get a lotof that prep work done, making sure
that you're standing out that littlebit more than anybody else and just
being that much easier to deal with andmaking sure you're making very clear
to them why you're the right choice.
trying to think about what are thequestions they would want answered, IE
(47:53):
that you're reliable, you're somebodythat would not only pay on time and
have the funds and money available.
So it's not about having just money inthe bank, it's having a regular income
so they can see that you're secure.
I. you're the right tenant to have.
You will be able to afford it.
You're not gonna miss payments.
Also, being the type of tenant thatis house proud, look after their home,
what you loved about it, having all yourreference letters, having all of that
(48:17):
just makes you stand out that littlebit more than anyone else and will
help you be able to secure your home.
So I hope this has helped.
if it has, please share it withanybody else that you feel w would
benefit from hearing this podcast.
also what I'll ask is if you canfollow me, go to my YouTube channel,
where I've not only got this podcast,but I'm starting to create a whole
lot of other helpful videos, forpeople that are immigrating to
(48:39):
New Zealand for the first time.
So it's at soft landing in z. on YouTube.
Look me up.
Subscribe, follow me.
yeah, and just thank you for the support.
Thank you for, listening.
And, you guys must keep safeand I'll speak to you soon.
Keep well.
There are over 100,000 people whoimmigrate to New Zealand every year with
the intention to make New Zealand theirhome, leaving behind everything they
know as normal day-to-day life and havingto learn new ways of doing things, new
norms, new cultures, and different values.
There are many people who struggle withthis transition and find it challenging
(00:25):
to adjust and settle so they cancall and make New Zealand their home.
The purpose of this podcast is for meto share my journey and our challenges
with the hope that you can learn from meand my family and have a softer landing.
There will be good days and baddays, but with time, more good days.
I believe we have made theright choice for our family.
(00:47):
I want to try and help you do the same,but hopefully with a softer landing.
This is Soft Landing and Iam your host, Brett Colette.
Welcome to this podcast, designed foranyone thinking about preparing for, or
who has just immigrated to New Zealand.
Subscribe now so you never miss an episodedrawing from his personal experience.
(01:09):
This series will guide you throughthe process of preparing for your
move and helping you navigatethe challenges of immigration.
Hello everyone.
It's nice to have you join meand welcome back to those that
have been listening regularly.
And for those of you that haven't,listened to my podcast before, welcome.
it's nice to have you, you, listen.
(01:31):
And I, will ask, if you haven't listenedto any of my other podcasts, and I know
a lot of the other guys that have beenlistening regularly probably think,
oh, geez, he's asking this again.
But I have been trying to do thepodcast in chronological order.
So I've been trying to tell my journeyfrom beginning to end, and it does
make sense if you try listen to themfrom number one in chronological order.
So please go back and listento number one, and try it.
(01:53):
Just get a better understanding of whoI am and the journey we've gone through
and why I am sharing this information andwhy I'm trying to try and help everybody
else out there that is, is looking tomove to New Zealand and immigrate here,
to, have a softer landing and to learnfrom us and to do better than us, and
help just make New Zealand home quicker.
(02:14):
So that's really the whole purpose.
So just asking if you haven'tlistened to any of those, please
go back to number one, but for.
What I was thinking of talkingabout today, it's, a little bit more
one of those practical podcasts.
Again.
So many people ask me or they tell meit's so difficult and so worrying, about
getting a rental and actually gettinga, place to, to live in New Zealand.
(02:40):
I know a big thing that was on theback of my mind, and that's why we were
trying to get a rental secured beforewe even came across is you want a home.
You want a place that you know youcan have a roof over your head,
especially if you've got a family tojust know that you've got a place of,
your own to be able to just feel safe.
And, it's sometimes very difficult.
(03:02):
Not knowing the process, especiallylike us, we, we haven't rented much in
our life until we moved to New Zealand.
We were lucky back home.
we were always able to own ourown home, so this whole renting
thing was a whole new story.
Also, the renting in New Zealand isdifferent to the way it is back home.
I can only refer to back toSouth Africa and what it was
(03:24):
like renting in South Africa.
obviously from experience of beingon the other side of the fence, I was
the landlord renting out to others,but the process was different and the
way we did it was different to what itis here, so it is a little different.
but one thing that we havelearned in the two and a bit
years that we've been here is.
(03:44):
What's helped us securerentals on a regular basis.
We've been in four rentals now ina space of, just over two years.
and with all four that we've appliedfor, we've been lucky where we've
actually been approved on every singleone of them, which has been great.
So there must be somemethod to tomorrow or.
Something positive to the,way that we've been doing it.
(04:07):
I, really gotta give alot of thanks to my wife.
It's really her, doing a lot of theresearch and putting in a lot of the
efforts, to make sure that we, arefollowing a process and documenting and
sharing in such a way that it's workingfor us and helping us secure our rentals.
So to try and answer that questionto a lot of people is, how do
I go about getting a rainfall?
How do I secure a rainfall?
(04:29):
what do I have to look into?
What, are the challenges?
how do I make sure I can get, myself or myfamily a home when we get to New Zealand?
So that's what I'm really gonnatry and talk through today.
I can only talk from a standpoint of uslooking for homes for a family of four.
I'm not gonna go intothe actual detail of.
The, budgeting and amount you wouldpay per week and, the different
(04:52):
places in New Zealand and thecosts and everything like that.
I have done a separate podcast on,costs and living expenses, so I did
touch on it a little bit there when Ispoke more about the financial side.
This is more about the processand how you go about securing that
wrinkle and what you can start doingwhen you're already back home still.
In our case in South Africa, before weeven left to come to New Zealand, what you
(05:13):
can prepare for, what you can already getin place to try and fast track and help
you secure the rental once you get here.
and that would apply for anycountry that you're coming from.
It's a lot of effort that you can putinto to preparing and getting templates,
et cetera, done before you arrive.
But I'm gonna give a little bitof a overview of our process,
what's worked for us, how we wentabout securing the, wrinkles.
(05:36):
What I have done is I've sat downwith my wife and I've got a, so
you might hear paper flipping here.
I've taken a lot of notes from her.
as I said, I can only thank her.
She's been very closeto this process, for us.
And, I really relied on her a lotand it's, all the, effort she's
put in and everything she's done.
really to make sure that we'vebeen able to secure a home, four
(05:56):
times now in the last two years.
So that's why I had totake notes from her.
So I'm gonna try and refer to my notesall the time so that I don't miss, any
of the points that she wanted to share.
The reason I didn't get her on the podcastand, try get it to almost do like an
interview style is, one of the thingsthat you do find a bit of a challenge when
you've moved across here with a familyis we don't have a support structure.
(06:17):
And what I mean by that is,we've got our kids that are,
especially my daughter who's five.
To try and do a half an hour,40 minute podcast where both
parents are locked behind a closeddoor that's never gonna work.
The five-year-old will neverleave us, alone for long enough.
So to We don't have a mom or, when I saymom, my mom, a granny or a grandpa, or a,
(06:42):
Or an uncle that we can call onto say, Hey, can we leave them
with you for an hour or two sothat we can get all this done?
We don't have that luxury.
so that's what I meanby support structure.
So that's why I rather sat with my wife,took down the notes, and that's why I'm
trying to convey all this information.
So starting in the beginning, theone of the biggest things that you're
going to need is what we found iscritical is here in New Zealand.
(07:05):
A lot of stuff is paperless.
A lot of stuff is, digital.
It's online.
They do it with apps.
So we come from South Africa wherea lot of it, a lot of documentation
and, rental agreements and everything.
I think they're moving towards,applications and online, apps, but
still a lot of stuff was even done.
(07:25):
With, actual paperwork.
So they would either print it out andstill do the old school way of doing it,
as hard copy, or they would email you adocument and you would still physically
sign that and email it back and forward.
Whereas here, one of the biggerdifferences was they have portals,
they have everything online.
It's all digital signatures, digitalinformation that gets uploaded.
So everything is a lot more streamlinedand a lot more online and digital.
(07:48):
So with that in mind, oneof the biggest things that.
We feel would help is if you arecoming across and landing in country
and in that first few weeks you'retrying to sort out a rental and
a home for you or your family.
If you need a laptop, you need some.
Sort of computer to be able to work on.
So if you're staying with friends,you've gotta have access to a
(08:10):
computer that you can use andthat's connected to the internet.
Or you've gotta have your own laptop sothat you can connect it and get online.
So you can start doing a lot of this workonline digitally to get a, rental secured.
So that's one thing just to keep in mind.
So maybe it's the company you're startingwith and within, you'll be able to use
that laptop straight away, that's fine.
(08:31):
But just bear in mind.
Sometimes you delay starting withthe company, so you've got a week
or so to try and settle your familyand get everything sorted out.
You're going to need a computer andto be online in that first, week.
Also, what I'll start talking throughis all the templates and everything
that you'll want and the informationyou'll need to gather and put together.
A lot of that you can start prepping.
(08:53):
In your home country beforeyou move to New Zealand.
So you can already get a lot of thatinformation digitally and uploaded and
ready so that you bring it across andit's ready for you here in New Zealand.
So if you don't have a laptop thatyou're gonna be bringing across and
you're gonna use a friend's laptopor computer, or you're gonna wait for
the company to give you a computer orwhatever on this side, at least get
all your digital stuff either saved ona USB stick or like we did, we got, a.
(09:19):
Family Google Drive.
so we would upload all our digitalcontent to, our family go Google Drive.
So both my wife and I have access to it.
and it was just a good way to haveaccess to all our digital contact
and information that we need.
And considering you going through theimmigration per, process, a lot of that
information you had to collect for yourvisas and everything anyway, so you've
(09:40):
gone through all that effort to collectall that information and collateral.
so to me it just makes sense.
Create that Google Drive, start organizingall your information, like copies
of passports, driver's licenses, anyreference letter, all that kind of stuff.
You could really start uploadingit onto the, Google Drive and
(10:02):
have it in digital format.
another thing is having digitalsignatures uploaded and ready.
So it's all that information,that you could have digitally
available, on a Google Drive.
So that's one of the first thingsyou would want to think about.
What you would want to do is whenyou're still, and what we did when we're
still back in South Africa, there was acouple of sites that we could go on to
start looking at rentals and what wasavailable, in New Zealand and the relevant
(10:25):
areas we're considering moving to.
So Trade Me was one of thesites that we would go to.
Another one was Real Estate, and thereare two others is one roof and my rent.
So there's four different sites thatwe know of that you could go to.
We predominantly worked offof Trade Me and Real estate.
Those were the two that we worked off of.
We didn't really work off much on oneroof or my rent, but those are the other
(10:47):
sites that you can go to with TradeMe It, does more than just property.
So you gotta go to the actual propertysection of Trade Me and when we were
back in South Africa a year, we couldgo view all the rentals and all the
information about the rentals, but ifyou wanted to apply for a rental when
you were still back in your home country.
With, trademe, you wouldneed a New Zealand telephone
(11:10):
number to be able to do that.
what we did to get around that is wedid log a support call when we were
still back in South Africa with trademeand explained to them our situation and
they did give us the relevant access orpermissions to be able to, actually even
go as far as applying for a rental whilewe're still in our home country without
(11:30):
having a New Zealand telephone number.
So it is possible, it just means you needto, Contact them and, do a little bit
more to be able to get it all sorted outwhile you still in your home country.
Real estate was fine though.
We could access and get into everythingthat we wanted to from South Africa.
There wasn't a problem there,without having all the details that
we would only be able to get oncewe were in country, in New Zealand.
(11:51):
What we did do, if you haven't heard someof our other podcasts, is we did apply
for a rental property and we secured itwhen we were still back in South Africa.
The way we did that is we did gothrough trademe, we did log the
support call, so we had all therelevant access, but what we did is,
and I'll talk through the process, is.
We secured the rental while wewere there by getting a friend
(12:12):
of ours in country in New Zealandto go through and view it for us.
And then we went through thewhole process that I'm gonna talk
through now to actually secure therental, pay the bond, et cetera.
Now if you've listened to myother podcast, in hindsight, we
probably wouldn't have gone aheadand secured a rental when we
were still in our home country.
Because as much as a friend can view itfor you and as much as you can do your
(12:33):
research online, when we actually got incountry and looked at the relevant area
and the schools and everything like that.
It was different and we did end upchanging our mind and we did end up
moving to a different area than whatwe originally thought we would stay in
when we were still back in South Africa.
So we did waste a bit of moneymoving around between our rentals.
Yeah.
(12:53):
Our first rental.
That wasn't a choice, that was by,forces of nature and having a flood.
Yep.
That happens.
the second one was.
We didn't, we ended up in an areathat we actually didn't really like.
So we did break that lease and I'lltalk through how you can break a lease
as well to eventually move to the areathat we wanna be in that is, zoned for
(13:14):
the schools that we wanted for our kids.
I don't know, in hindsight, I'd probablywait until you in country to be able to.
Start actually going around and lookingat the different rentals and finding
a place that you would like, but youcan do a lot of that prep work when
you're still back in your home country.
IE you can start looking at the area,start looking at the costs for the
(13:34):
different rentals, the different sizehomes that you need for your family.
In whichever area you'repotentially looking in.
so you can do a lot of thatresearch online already.
When you do go to trade me or realestate and you start looking at the
properties, it also give you a goodwrite up about the properties so you
can start getting a feel and photosto start seeing what they look like.
(13:55):
But it'll also.
I don't think Trade Me does it,but I know real estate does it.
If you, scroll further down, it'llstart giving you schools that are
zoned for particular areas so that youcould also then start thinking about
which potential schools you wouldwant your kid, if you've got kids you
would want them to be enrolled in.
and.
You gotta look at, the public schoolsare zoned for particular areas.
(14:15):
So you would want to find a rentalin the area, that you, want to
send your kids to school to, soyou're zoned for those areas.
If it's a private school,semi-private, it is a different story.
But there's a whole notherprocess of getting your kids into
semi-private and private schools.
'cause they can be picky onwho they're allowing, whereas.
A public school you are zoned andthey would allow you in, but you need
(14:36):
to be zoned and living in that area.
So getting back to it, yeah.
Those are the four different sitesthat you would want to look on,
with the Trade Me or real estate.
Yeah.
First thing is obviously lookingat the, area that you're zoned for
with schooling, if you've got kids,'cause that's an important thing.
What you've gotta remember ona lot of these sites, they do
use professional photographers.
(14:57):
The photos of the place may lookawesome, but when you actually do
a viewing, it can be a differentstory, a slightly different story.
So it is so importantyou've got to do a viewing.
Now, in our case, in our firstrental, we did get friends of
ours to go do the viewing for us.
so it's gotta be somebody that you cantrust and be willing to go and have
a look if you want to do it that way.
But otherwise, if you're doing aviewing yourself, there are gonna be
(15:20):
things that you want to look out for.
I'll talk through it a little bit later,but they do talk through healthy homes.
When you eventually get to sign yourtenant agreement or your, lease agreement,
but things you'll want to look at isyou, want to look that the house is
dry, that there's no mold to look behindyour curtains and stuff like that.
Make sure that there's no mold orwet patches or anything like that.
(15:42):
'cause that could be a bit of a concern.
a big thing for us was trying to finda home that had double glazed, windows.
that's just for heat, soit can be a lot warmer.
In the winter months, we are up inAuckland, which is meant to be a little
bit more north and be a little bit warmer.
So I can only imagine the more southyou go, it's probably even more crucial
that you have double, double glazing,and airtight windows and all the rest,
(16:07):
especially coming from South Africa.
our homes weren't, airtight.
I dunno how else to explain it, butyou'd probably hear the rustle of
the wind coming through the windows.
Whereas here, everythingseals really, tight.
in, especially in the newer builds, whichis important for the keeping the heat in.
You'll wanna look at your heatpumps or they refer to a heat
(16:27):
pump as an air conditioner.
Make sure that you've got one that cankeep the house warm or some sort of
heating to keep the, living area warm.
you'll see when you sign up the leaseagreement that they will do a healthy
homes assessment where they will tell youthat they've last checked, the insulation
and they've checked, for, the ventilationin the home and everything like that.
(16:52):
So you would wanna check that allof that has been done, but these
are things you just want to keep.
Keep in mind when you are actually havinga look at the home and, considering a
rental, which sometimes you won't pickup on the online pictures, et cetera.
So you, would wanna look atthat information that you over
and above, the schooling you.
(17:13):
You probably need to, no, I'llget to the Informationist now.
But once you've chosen a place thatyou want to stay at, so say you've
gone to real estate and you've founda few homes that you wanna look at,
you would actually go onto the websiteand you would actually click that.
You want to do a viewing, so you haveto register and book for a viewing.
What the agents do is they will giveyou certain dates where they generally
(17:34):
have a whole lot of people come throughall at once to view a particular home.
usually the viewing isn't long.
It's, probably a window of about a30 minutes to 40 minute viewing, and
they could, depending on how popularthat potential rainfall is, you could
have anywhere up to 20 differentfamilies all walking through the
home in that same 30 minute slot.
(17:56):
So it can be quite.
Competitive when you're choosinga home, depending on the area
that you're trying to look at,especially if it's sought after.
so once you've gone onto the, siteand you've, clicked on, you wanna
book a viewing, you would usually getan email back and you do everything
online with correspondence with agent.
They'll tell you the date you book inthe date, you'll then go through on
(18:19):
that date, and have a look at the home.
Important things to rememberis that if there, it is a
popular and a lot of them are.
rental area and there's alot of people viewing it.
You wanna stand out, you want to,you want the agent to remember you.
Okay?
a big thing that we try dear, and I knowit sounds, it could sound a bit silly,
(18:41):
but it's important when you arrive,make sure first impressions, mean a lot.
So the way you dress, don't, show up inyour, like your dressing gown type thing.
And I'm not saying you did that, but just.
Dress neat and tidy so that you lookpresentable, that you look, the part
somebody that's first impressions.
Oh yeah, they're a familythat's got it together.
(19:04):
so it's just the first impressions, howyou dress and how you portray yourself
when you, go through for that, viewing.
Also, when you do the viewing, make aneffort to go and introduce yourself to
the agent so that you can explain them.
Hi, I'm Brett Collette.
This is my family, da.
We are from South Africa,so that they know.
They, can pit a, face to the, what I'mgonna call the CV that they're gonna
(19:29):
look at later or the application so thatyou stand out and they can remember you.
That's why I said first impressions,the way you dress, but it's also
actually going and making thateffort of introducing yourself.
What we have done is over and aboveintroducing yourself and, worrying about
the first impressions and everything.
We did move across with two animals.
(19:49):
So we, we have, two cats that have movedacross with us, and I'll talk through a
little bit more in the podcast, shortly.
But if there are rentals.
A lot of them say, no petsin our experience still go
look at those properties.
Even if it says no pets.
(20:10):
Okay, what we've done is we go look atthem, but when we've introduced ourself
to the agent and when we've, we've spokento them doing that 30 minute viewing.
We've explained to them,we do have two pets.
We know that the advent saidno pets, but we do have two.
A lot of the time the agents say,fine, still put in the application,
(20:31):
and it'll be at the end of the day,at the discretion of the landlord.
It'll be up to the landlord.
Now, obviously, if they've got a wholelot of people to choose from and there's
a family that stands out, that is awesome,that meets all the financial criteria,
looks responsible, and I'll talk throughall the different criteria to consider.
And they don't have pets, they'reprobably gonna choose them over you, okay?
(20:53):
Because they will shortlistwho's good, but they're gonna
take their best candidate.
and if they really don't wantpets, they probably choose a family
that doesn't have pets over you.
But what.
We've had in our experience is bygoing and being upfront with the
agent, when we meet them for the firsttime and explain, we do have pets.
They've always told us well still apply.
(21:14):
And we, as I said, have been infour rentals now and in all four
we have been able to secure therental and we do have two cats.
and all of those rentals have beenadvertised as not pet friendly, but
yet we've still been able to secure it.
Even although we have pets, so I'mjust telling you, it can be done.
(21:34):
Okay?
So don't shy away and only look andfilter on the, websites by rentals that
are available for, pets and pet friendly.
You can look at the others,but you just need to be upfront
and just explain to them.
Some people have told us what they've doneas they haven't mentioned it to the agent
until they were at the application stage.
I don't agree with that.
(21:55):
They said that's what's worked for them.
I'm more of the opinion and that's howwe are is we are upfront and honest.
I think it comes across better where theycan see that for your personal branding,
it's somebody that they can trust.
It's somebody that's not hiding anythingand you're rather being upfront with them.
So that's worked for us.
With regards to the pet.
So yeah, first thingyou book the, viewing.
(22:19):
Yes.
You do feel like, it's a little bitof a, it's a mad rush with all these
families all going in that 30 minuteslot and a whole lot of people looking
at the one, one house and you cansee who you are all up against to
try and, be approved for, the rental.
'cause generally there's a lot offamilies that, all try all at once,
especially if it's in a particular area,where there's good schooling and stuff.
(22:40):
So yes, first impressions.
Make sure that you've introduced yourself.
You've got the, faceto face with the agent.
When you speak to the agent, also justexplain to them a little bit, give them
little nuggets about yourself, like wherea South African family, w how proud.
Just tell 'em a little bit about selves,whatever else neat, tidy you, what
you love about the home, just so thatyou can try stand and on they can.
(23:02):
Remember you, once you've seen theplace, the first thing you're going
to need to do is you're going toneed to go and put in an application.
What we've done is my wife has almostcreated what is a template called Our
Family cv, and she's created not onlyone for the family, but it's, she's
also created one for the animals.
And what I mean by this is ifyou, could go onto Google and you
(23:22):
can do a bit of a re a search.
and just search for cover letters.
And what she's done is she's tailoredthe cover letter to a rental CB template.
Okay?
So what she's put in there is shemakes sure that there's pictures
of our family, so there's, theycan see a visual of us as a family.
so over and above that firstimpressions is us introducing
(23:44):
ourselves Now when they actually getthe documentation that we're gonna.
Send through to them later, and I'lltalk you through how we do that.
They can also see thepicture of us and our family.
So that was important.
there, there was a site, when she did theGoogle search that does these templates.
I know you have to purchase them.
It's called.
Etsy, I think it is.
So it's ETSY is a templates, sitethat my wife actually went to.
(24:08):
She didn't purchase the, templates, butshe looked at some of these and they
grayed out a little, but it gave her anidea of how to format, the templates.
Okay.
So that, that is one ofthe sites you can look at.
So she made sure it had picturesof our family to also make sure
that it had information about us.
So it spoke a little bit to ourvalues as a family, what our
interests are, what's important to us.
(24:31):
So it was just, it's moretrying to advertise your family.
Why choose us, why we are abetter choice than anybody else.
Not obviously saying it to that degree,but it's what they're trying to answer.
So you're almost trying to putyourself in the agent or the landlords.
Shoes and try understand what would theywant in a person renting their, the home.
They want a family that's stable.
They want somebodythat's got stable income.
(24:53):
They want somebody that has goodvalues that'll look after the
home, that will make sure thatthe, basic maintenance is done.
So if a light bulb, goes,they'll replace the light bulb.
They'll make sure that it's kept neatand tidy and everything goes wrong.
They'll make sure to contact the,agents to make sure everything's.
Kept in the home and fixed and repaired,so you won't just let the house run down.
(25:15):
So it's important.
That's what they're probably looking for.
So you want to try, give that CV to givea good overview of you and your family.
You also wanna, in the cv, do alittle bit of a writeup and explain
why are we interested in their home?
What did we like about their home?
So you could talk to, obviouslythere's schools in the area
that you liked for your kids.
You could talk about.
the, parks in the area that you, youcould talk about, maybe it had an outside
(25:38):
patio area that was very important toyou 'cause you like, having barbecues
outside with your family, whatever it is.
But just try and talk a littlebit about what you liked about the
house and then like I mentioned,you'll want to talk about.
Why you are responsible,why you're, the right fan.
Choose, and you could do that withsome of the, reference letters
(25:59):
that you've potentially worked on.
And I'll talk through those where you'vegot referrals and writeups from people.
It could be family, it could be,other agencies that you've worked
with back home in your home country.
But just write up talkingto your character and how
you are responsible and how.
You are a house proud type of peopleand that you would look after the home.
(26:20):
So just talk to all of that in yourcv so it gives a good overview of
you, your family, what's importantto you, why you want this home, and
why they would wanna choose you.
What my wife did, one step further isnot only write up about our family and
create this template, with, making sureall this information was in it, she then
added on a separate page to that cv just.
(26:41):
Around our pets.
So she again, took some pictures of thetwo cats, their names explained that
we are responsible pet owners and howwe've got them all vaccinated, and how
they're so important to us that we'vebrought them all the way from South Africa
and that they've really helped, with.
our helping our kids settle and how, justwriting up a little bit about how we good
(27:05):
pet owners and how we do look after thepets and we make sure that they've got
scratch posts and everything like that sothey won't destroy anything in the home.
So you just talk through that.
So it's a bit of a CV over and above that.
What you can also do if you've got pets.
So we did mention to theagency when we were there.
The 30 minute viewing, and then weobviously adding it into the cv.
(27:27):
But what we also did is we mentionedto them that we'd even be willing
to, and again, this depends onyour budget, pay a little bit extra
because we know we've got pets.
And they didn't say thatthey, that pets were allowed.
So for example, in one of the rentals,we said we are prepared to pay an extra
$20 a week, because we now got pets.
Over and above, keeping theplace clean and everything else
(27:49):
we've written up, we are alsoprepared to pay a little bit more.
So that was somethingthat you, could also do.
a big thing is, again, dependson you and your budget.
We've also committed that if we moveout of a rental, we'll make sure that we
get the carpets and everything cleanedprofessionally because we've got pets
and I know they didn't want pets, sothat's another thing that we've mentioned
to them and put it in the writer.
(28:10):
So it just helps them see that we.
We definitely care and we have, the typeof character that we are house proud.
We will look after the home.
We are a reliable choice wheresomebody that will pay on time
and generally look after theirproperty even although we have pets.
(28:30):
Okay.
So, that's what you'd be puttingin this, template and this writeup.
or cv.
And this is what you can create whenyou're still back in your home country.
So don't leave it until you're here inNew Zealand and then you're in that first
week and you're trying to find a home andyou're now trying to write all this up.
Try do it before you even get on theplane and before you even get here,
use, Go onto these sites, go to lookat these, templates and these cover
(28:55):
letters and write that up already.
Reach out to people that, family members,get them to write up the reference
letters, while you're still in country.
So you've got those digitally alreadyand, signed off if we weren't renting in
South Africa, but we, did, rent out otherproperties and we did sell our property.
So we got our estate agent to writeup, a reference letter about us.
(29:19):
So we had it from.
Any estate agent that was not,that we were renting from them, but
that was selling our houses for us.
So they gave us likea character reference.
we got some family membersto write up about us.
You could get your manager oranybody to write up anybody that
could give you a good referral andreference and character reference.
Get those references all written upand get the templates all written up.
Now, obviously, when you applyfor properties here for Wrinkle.
(29:42):
You've now got that template.
You just have to tweaka few little things.
So what was specific that youliked about each specific rental?
Make it, customize it to that, orwhat was in the area or whatever else.
But you've got the bones tothe template already done and
ready before you even get here.
So that's a big thingthat you would want to do.
(30:02):
talking through now, if we carryon back with the process, you've
gone and you've done the viewing.
What you'll do is, because everything hereis pretty much via portals and online, the
agency will tell you if you did the rentaland you wanted to apply, you would now
need to go onto their portal and you wouldneed to, start applying for that rental.
And what that would mean is on the portal,it'll give you prompts of inputting all
(30:25):
your information that they're looking for.
So they would look for.
information around your finances andearnings and stuff like that, they
would look through, potentially theywould want some reference letters.
They just ask a little bit about youand your family and how many people
will be staying in the home, how manyvehicles would be parked at the home,
but you would follow the promptsand complete all that, information
online, post scene, the viewing.
(30:48):
Okay.
Important and what's worked well forus is the same day that we did the
viewing, we pushed to make sure wedid the application in the same day.
It just shows that you were eager andyou were, you really wanted the place
versus waiting a few days, consideringthere's also potentially 10, 20 other
(31:09):
families that are also applying.
You don't wanna be at the back ofthe queue, so you wanna be that.
First person that's applied.
So over and above the first impressions wespoke about introducing yourself, getting
a good writeup and CV and templatized,that you've got all your information about
you, your family, your pets, et cetera.
You also want to.
Follow it up by applying in the same day.
(31:31):
It just shows that you're eager,that you want the place that
much more than anybody else.
Okay?
So that's why we made surewe applied on the same day.
What you will also need to do isif you are applying for the rental
jointly, so my wife and I appliedfor all the rentals together.
You will both need a login to the portal.
You can't just do it on the one login.
(31:51):
Just keep that in mind.
You both have to create a loginbecause once they, if you do get
shortlisted and you do eventually getchosen, the tenancy agreement does
go through that portal and it wouldneed to go to each of you separately
to digitally sign via the portal.
So it would have to be sentto the one person first they
have to sign, and then it.
Goes through the workflow toautomatically get sent to the next
person they sign, and then the workflowtakes it back to the agency who gets
(32:14):
the, landlord to sign, et cetera.
But it's all done online andvia workflows, via the portal.
But you would both need a a, login.
I. So once you, go back that same day,apply, give them all the information.
Sometimes you will find on the portalwhen you're applying and you've got
the dropdowns and give them all theinformation they're looking for.
(32:35):
There may not be an option tobe able to upload your cv, the.
Template that I've spoken aboutor any reference letters and stuff
like that, but it's not a waste.
What we've done is we've gonethrough, uploaded all the
information that they've asked for.
Generally by this stage, youcan get an email address of the
agent that you're dealing with.
We then mail the agents, Post applyingonline via their portal and emailed them
(33:00):
and said, thank you so much for your time.
And you word it all in a nice wayand you then attach your reference
letters, your cvs, et cetera, and tellthem We have applied via your portal,
but please see additional informationregarding our family, regarding the
pets that I mentioned to you, and somereference letters, da, whatever else.
So you just that you're standing out that.
(33:22):
And putting in thatlittle bit more effort.
So send that to them directlyas well, but really don't delay.
Make sure you get it done in the sameday once you've applied on the portal.
And you've sent them all the information.
The agencies will go through all thedifferent applications that they've
had, and they generally shortlist, ifthere's been a lot of applicants, they'll
(33:43):
shortlist a handful of people and theywill pass that on to the landlord.
So the landlord will then havethe final say of which tenant
they potentially want to choose.
So that's why I was saying it would beimportant that one, you, we don't get to
deal with the landlord directly unlessyou are renting direct from the landlord.
We have not.
done any of our rentalsdirectly with the landlord.
(34:04):
We know of other people that have,we've always gone through agencies.
Okay.
so just the point I'm trying tomake is I can't talk to how it works
dealing directly with the landlord,and there's a lot of pros and cons with
dealing directly with the landlord.
we've spoken to some friends thathave dealt with a landlord directly
and you can get some storieswhere it hasn't worked out well.
(34:26):
They've cut corners.
Certain things like.
Way they've set up some stuff inthe home, like electrics and stuff.
It hasn't been done to code andhealth and safety is not as good.
But then I talked to some other friendsand they said they've dealt directly
with the landlord and they've beenable to save a little bit of money
and they've been able to stay forlonger and built a relationship with
the landlord so it could work us.
We chose to always deal with anagency 'cause it's more professional
(34:49):
and we just feel it safeguards us alittle bit as much as the landlord
gets safeguarded by using an agency.
So that, was our choice.
I can only talk from an agencyperspective getting back to it.
So they will then shortlist,send that off to the landlord.
The landlord will then have the final say.
You, if you do get declined, you'llget an email and they'll let you know.
(35:11):
we've been blessed and lucky.
We haven't been declined on once,so I don't know the actual post,
but I would imagine it's as easyas just a notification via mail.
All of this is done online.
All of it is done via a portal.
All our updates, get done via.
Email and the portal.
We found this process of doinga rental here in New Zealand.
It's quick.
You can get all of thisdone within a week.
(35:33):
So when you found a place you applyfor the viewing, from the time you
go view within that week, they'vealready got to the point of signing
the lease agreement, paying yourdeposit, your or your bond, and getting
your date to be able to move in.
So the process is very quickand it moves along very quickly.
So we hadn't, we didn't have to chasethe agency trying to phone them,
getting updates by just checkingyour email and going onto the portal.
(35:54):
Because it's so quick, we were gettingall the updates that we needed.
So once the landlord has made a decision,they'll go back to the agency and say,
okay, that's the family that we've chosen.
You'll be notified via email and theportal, from the agent, and they may give
you a call and say, you've been approved.
If you've been approved, that will kickoff the workflow again in the portal,
because now what'll happen is overand above the information, which was
(36:15):
the first phase, so that they could.
Choose which tenant they want to, take on.
They're now uploading the actuallease agreement to the portal, so
you'd have to read through the leaseagreement, all the terms and conditions,
the health and safety portion thatI spoke through, and you'd have to
actually sign the lease agreement.
It is all digitally signed.
So this is again where I toldyou it'll be important to have
(36:37):
a lot of your, you can do this.
Upfront when you're still inyour home country, get your,
signatures uploaded digitally.
Get all your references digitally,get everything in that digital format.
We used Google Cloud, so that's whereall our information was kept, but just
make sure you get all of that donebefore you get yours 'cause it just makes
life easier for you and less stressful.
So once you've read through the,lease agreement and you sign it
off, the big thing that you're goingto need to do is pay your bond.
(37:00):
What your bond is that's your deposit.
most places here they ask forfour weeks, rental as a bond.
So I. Let's use a nice round number.
Let's just say your, weeklyrainfall cost is a thousand dollars.
It'll be $4,000 that they'll ask youto pay for as a bond, and generally
over and above the bond, they alsoask for two weeks rainfall upfront.
(37:23):
So if it was a thousand dollars aweek, it's $4,000, you'd have to pay
for your bond and $2,000 you'd haveto pay for the two weeks upfront.
And then thereafter it'll be two $1,000,a week that goes off your account.
So it is a, lot of money to haveupfront, but again, as I said, I did a
different podcast on, living Expenses.
You can go into that one for more detail,but you'd get to the stage, you sign off
(37:47):
the tenancy agreement on the portal, you.
first, sign it all off and they'll giveyou details of where to pay the bond.
You pay the bond goes through to, it'snot kept by the landlord or the agency.
It's actually kept by atenancy, a government, tenant.
tenancy a agency, so it's tenant.conz, so they actually keep, it is not
(38:12):
an interest bearing account, so it doesget put into an account where there's no
interest, but they keep it safe for you.
And then when you plan on leaving.
the rental, whether it's you choosingor they choosing or whatever reason,
you would get your bond back so longas the place is in a good condition.
So you go through actually signingthe tenancy agreement, paying the
bond, then they choose that, they seethe money goes through, you're then
(38:35):
chosen, and then they'll give you adate of when you can actually move in.
So it's a really slick process.
the biggest thing is what I spoke to youabout getting your, getting standing out.
Just making sure you.
You are that much betterchoice than anybody else.
creating those templates, havingthat first impression, having those
(38:55):
conversations with them, I think that'simportant to try and help you secure it.
Big things, once you've got the tenancy,that first week that you actually move
into the property, an important thing is.
When you do that intro, assessmentof the property, make sure you take
(39:16):
photos of everything that you findthat is potentially not a hundred
percent right in the property.
So if you see certain a, like a nail inthe wall or a scratch and paint or a mark
on a carpet or a, I don't know, somethingthat's not quite right in any particular.
Take photos of everything and be veryparticular and detailed in that first
(39:37):
week and submitting it back to the agent.
The reason being, you want to know thatby the time you leave the rental, if they
come back and do an assessment to get yourbond back, that if they said, oh, there's
a mark on the carpet here, if you'dalready note that up front, you won't be.
There's no dispute.
There's no argumentthat you made that mark.
So make sure that first weekyou document everything.
(39:58):
Some agencies via a portal, they'llgive you a portal where you can upload
the photos directly to the portalin that first week of everything
that you, when you go round to everysingle room and you check for any.
Different like marks orproblems or anything like that.
If they don't have a portal for you todo that, just make sure you take all the
photos, put it in a document or something,and then mail it off to them just so
(40:20):
that you've got something in writingdigitally that you've checked everything
so there's no dispute, no argument whenyou finally move out of the property.
So that's something that'simportant for you too.
To do in that first week andmake sure you do that right.
The other thing that they also dowith the rentals here is once you've
secured your rental new state init, you will get a house assessment
(40:40):
or check done every quarter.
So every three months, aagency will contact you and
they'll wanna just do a, house.
A house check.
And just check that everything isstill in good working order, you
looking after the place, et cetera.
This was a bit of a tough one for us.
We do, we, at first I felt like itwas such an invasion of your privacy,
these people wanting to come andcheck in on, on, on, you and make
(41:03):
sure you, are doing everything yousaid you would be doing and you're
not doing anything wrong or whatever.
It just felt awkward to me, but you'vesince got used to it, especially if
you stay in the same rental for awhile, you get used to the agent.
we've actually built arelationship with her.
So it actually doesn't feel sobad and you get used to it after a
bit of time, but in the beginningit is little bit of a challenge.
(41:23):
What you will do is when they do thesechecks, they do give you warning.
so they usually give you about aweek's notice and tell you, look,
it's, time to do your quarterly check.
they do usually send you a checklistand say, these are the things, just
make sure that are, are in order.
Make sure the house is clean, make surethe toilet's clean, make sure there's
no washing lying around, so that they'llgive you all the little things just to
(41:43):
check and make sure are done before theyactually come through for, the house.
check.
A big thing here is they're verytrusting, so they may even tell you,
Hey, it's, gotta be done during the week.
They don't do these checks on theweekends, so it's from a Monday to Friday
working day that they'll do the checksthat, but they, will offer and say,
Hey, they can come through while you'reat work, and they'll let themselves in
a lot of the time, they either have akey or a lot of the houses here have a
(42:06):
digital code just to be able to begin.
So they'll offer to just comethrough without you at home.
That was a big no-no.
For us, it just, I just, it was hardenough having somebody come into
your home and you're feeling, you'rebeing checked up on, but then to let
somebody into your home when you're noteven there, no, it just blew my mind.
That wasn't gonna work for us, so we,would always arrange that we are there
when they came and did the check.
Also, we did have the twocats, so I was really worried.
(42:28):
If they let the cats out or anythinghad to happen, I didn't want that.
So we made sure we were homewhen they're doing the checks.
But just bear in mind, they dooffer, if you're okay with it,
they'll come into the home andeven check without you being there.
So the, those are probably theimportant things to think about
once you've got the rental, withthe checks that they're gonna do.
And that first week check,that's very important.
(42:49):
Maybe another thing I'll also just touchon, just because we've been through it as
well, I did say you can break your lease.
So one of the rentals we were in, wefound out within the first month that it
wasn't where we wanted to be area wise.
So as long as it's not a disputefrom either end, meaning from the
landlord or agency or yourselves,you, can break the lease.
There are penalties to breaking alease though, and it's usually written
(43:11):
up in your, it better be writtenup in your lease agreement for us.
For example, the one rental, whenwe broke the lease within the first
month, there was a, I think itworked out to about a $700, penalty
for breaking the lease early.
and there was some admincosts and stuff like that.
but the reason was weweren't happy in the area.
They understood it, and generallyrentals are sought after here, so
(43:33):
it's quite quick and easy for themto turn them over, to somebody else.
So the turnaround time and gettingit rented out to somebody else is
not too much of a problem for them.
But just bear in mind, that can hityour budget, if you wanted to break
a lease early, but it can be done.
I do know in some areas I've heard ofsome people, if they're not in a sort
after area, it can be difficult when youbreak the lease because the, they expect
(43:56):
you to find somebody else and you'llbe liable until you find somebody else.
so that could be a challenge.
I. Just be careful of that.
Us generally, the areaswe've, no, not generally.
The areas we've been in are soughtafter areas, so it wasn't difficult
for them to find somebody else.
It was just paying the penalty,that, we had on the lease agreement.
(44:17):
So you can get out ofthe lease if you need to.
I'm just trying to go back tothe notes and see if there's
anything else I've missed here.
so my wife's told us about the week.
That is so important.
She's told you, oh, if.
Like I said, we got outof the, tenancy agreement.
There was no dispute, but not that we'vehad this, but if there is a dispute from
either yourselves or the agency or thelandlord, there is a tenancy tribunal
(44:42):
here that you can go to either side.
And they handle any of those disputes.
So it's tennessee.gov nz so you canread up a little bit more there.
I can't talk to it becausewe haven't had a, dispute or
anything of those of that nature.
So I can't talk to it.
But there is.
a tribunal that you cango to that handles that.
So that is something that you can do.
(45:04):
But overall, I think as long as you'vegot a good writeup, a good CV with all
the information, you make sure that whenyou are actually looking for your rentals
and you follow their process online andyou've got a computer and everything
ready with all your templates, all yourreference letters, you can be that.
Much quicker than anybody elseto get your applications in.
(45:25):
Also, making sure your first impressionsare good when you actually see the
agent in that, that, first viewing,you introduce yourself, you follow
up with some emails with your cvsand your write-ups and everything
like that, and keep it professional.
You, you've got a really good chance ofbeing chosen over and above anybody else.
Also, making sure that you've got yourdeposits and everything ready, so if
(45:45):
you do get chosen, you can move quickly.
'cause they also wannaget somebody in quickly.
So if you're, You've got all your ducksin a row and got everything ready and
you can just pay your deposit quickly.
it also helps, making sure that you,can secure the rental so you can be
sure that you can, it's a horribleway to say it, but beat anybody else
and actually getting the rental.
(46:06):
'cause the market is, it's hot here.
A lot of people are tryingto get into the wrinkles.
A big thing we've also done before,but I've spoken about that in the
Living Expenses Podcast is cashflowthat can get affected by the bond.
So what I mean by that is if you'vemoved into a Wrinkle and you're
moving out of the Wrinkle, the bondhas been, I. Kept by the tenancy.
(46:29):
so what'll happen is you don'tget your bond back straight away.
So if you're trying to get into yournext wrinkle and you've gotta pay the
bond, you sometimes don't have the moneyavailable until you get your bond back.
People can negotiate and you can try workwith 'em and say, okay, once I've got that
bond back, I pay it and whatever else.
But what we've done is to be thatmore efficient and easier to deal
(46:50):
with is I have had my credit cardavailable where we paid the new bond
off my credit card while we waited forthe old bond to be paid back to us.
And then I just said my credit card,so they didn't have to wait and we
could be very quick and slick in makingsure that we could secure the rental.
So just watching your cashflow and just trying to see how
that works as well can help.
(47:10):
So that's all I can reallythink about for rentals.
I know it is a big thing for people andit's obviously, geez, you want a, home
for your family, especially if you'vegot kitties and everything to make sure
you've got something, secured and thatyou can feel, just that peace of mind
that you've got a home for your family.
It is a process.
It can be a bit of a pain, butespecially if you're doing it for
the first time and also with allthe checks and everything else.
(47:32):
But you get used to it and it can workif you just take some of these, tips
that I've shown you, try to get a lotof that prep work done, making sure
that you're standing out that littlebit more than anybody else and just
being that much easier to deal with andmaking sure you're making very clear
to them why you're the right choice.
trying to think about what are thequestions they would want answered, IE
(47:53):
that you're reliable, you're somebodythat would not only pay on time and
have the funds and money available.
So it's not about having just money inthe bank, it's having a regular income
so they can see that you're secure.
I. you're the right tenant to have.
You will be able to afford it.
You're not gonna miss payments.
Also, being the type of tenant thatis house proud, look after their home,
what you loved about it, having all yourreference letters, having all of that
(48:17):
just makes you stand out that littlebit more than anyone else and will
help you be able to secure your home.
So I hope this has helped.
if it has, please share it withanybody else that you feel w would
benefit from hearing this podcast.
also what I'll ask is if you canfollow me, go to my YouTube channel,
where I've not only got this podcast,but I'm starting to create a whole
lot of other helpful videos, forpeople that are immigrating to
(48:39):
New Zealand for the first time.
So it's at soft landing in z. on YouTube.
Look me up.
Subscribe, follow me.
yeah, and just thank you for the support.
Thank you for, listening.
And, you guys must keep safeand I'll speak to you soon.
Keep well.
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