Repatriation Planning

I shared some posts during our repatriation planning that might help others who are planning repatriation to Australia (or any county really), So I decided to add this page so they can all be easily found.

Here are 5 major things that need to be achieved for an international move:

Liquidation of assets (what aren't you taking to your final destination? House, cars, excess belongings)
Removalists (beloved furniture & belongings)
Pet transportation (plan a year in advance for moves into Australia due to quarantine requirements)
Arrival housing
Arrival preparations (what will need to be bought e.g. cars, household appliances, furniture and which are the highest priority)

Liquidation of Assets

House: choose a great realtor and allow 4+ months. Consider temporary housing like an apartment for an interim period as furniture and belongings take 3 months to arrive in Australia. See my 'Apartment Living' tab for more details about the temporary apartment we rented for 6 months.

Our great realtor in Denver:

https://youraussieagent.com/

Cars: we sold our American cars to CarMax and found them fast, efficient and fair!

CarMax Parker Colorado

Excess belongings: we chose to give away all our excess belongings, everything from beds to electrical appliances. We used Facebook Marketplace for large items and set the price at $0. We found this was sometimes problematic because we'd get ghosted at pickup times quite often but it was still the best option. Start by decluttering in every room and space!

10 Things to Declutter & Organize

Small items were donated to thrift stores:

https://goodwillcolorado.org/

https://arcthrift.com/

Removalists

We used https://www.unitedvanlines.com/

However I wasn't terribly happy so I am not recommending them. I'll update this once all our stuff is unpacked and we see how much stuff is broken.

Pet Transportation

So far we have been very happy with our chosen service provider: https://pet-express.com/

They work with https://www.jetpets.com.au/ in Australia who moved Henry and Ebony to America ten years ago and were excellent. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Arrival Housing

For us buying our Australian home four years before our repatriation made it an easier transition, so consider that if you are financially able. We rented the home for those 4 years to good tenants and it's been well looked after. Our managing agents were:

https://www.profrh.com.au/

We still love the house we chose and it's appreciated in value significantly during that four years.

Cooloongup Home Bought in 2018

Our Aussie real estate agent in 2018 when we bought the house was terrific:

Giles New - Professionals Rockingham