[stevied20]

Hello to one and all,

After a bit of a rollercoaster the last 4 months or so we have just received our ITA, or "Doorstop" as it has been nicknamed. We even felt the need to tip the postman lol.

Medicals are booked in, their a bit steep as well, it's all money!!!

Me and my wife and two kids are looking to settle in Christchurch some time next year.

My wife has membership of the New Zealand Nursing Council and should find work ok, I am a chef by trade and I am hoping to find work when I land.
Colm is 17 and will be looking to go to university and Harry is 6 and will start year 3 in New Zealand.

Are there any pitfalls to be careful of at this point that maybe we hadn't thought of?
Any advice at all would be grateful!
How early to sell the house?

I shall keep in touch

Many thanks

Steve & Ju

[Joanne100]

Hi Steve,
Welcome to the forum
I dont think u can sell ur house soon enough, we sold ours b4 we defo knew we were coming over, it was one less thing to worry/stress about, we sold it and rented for 5 months, think it was the best thing for us to do, we had nightmares about getting the go ahead and then not being able to sell the house, couldnt think of anything worse!
Hope everything goes as smoothly as poss for u all, keep in touch and we could meet up when u arrive in Chch.
Joanne

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

I would agree, if (like most people) you are relying on the equity in your house to help fund the move then get it sold asap. There are plenty of stories in this forum of people having nightmare situations because the house didn't sell in time. Also, having all your other little debts settled prior to leaving UK and arriving in NZ debt free is a great feeling.

If you have savings or funds available elsewhere then this might be less of a problem of course. Moving into rented for a while in the UK does, of course, bring it's own set of hassles with it, but as long as you look on it as 'part of the emigration process' then you should be OK. The benefits should outweigh the hassles.

We were extremely lucky in that we sold our house to a family that were happy to wait a couple of months to take possession, so at all worked perfectly timing-wise, but this was pure luck, nothing to do with judgement or skill on our part!