Well, congratulations on that Shannon, even if it was a couple of years ago, and welcome to the forum.
Sydney is our largest city and most expensive to live in as you may already know, and it has some significant transport problems, the inner suburbs being built about various arms of a lovely harbour and thus scope for roads and rail has always been limited, and then there are various tolled motorways serving outer suburbs which can stretch right out to the foothills of the Blue Mountains some 50 km or so away.
A lot of those people looking to get in towards the CBD or across to the other side from where they live all add to roads congestion and railways have not been getting a great report card of late.
The closer to the CBD/Harbour/Coast you desire to live, the more you will pay and Sydney prime real estate is expensive, and more and more inner residents opting for apartments.
www.domain.com.au is one well used site that will give you an idea of both renting and purchase prices.
As to how people go about it?; I'd suspect that job hunting ought to be high on the list, and unemployment is very low at the moment, and it could be a good time for seeking of work dependant on area of skill.
SEEK - Australia's no. 1 jobs, employment, career and recruitment site and
Job Search - Australian jobs - Job listing - Find a job - CareerOne are sites to start working with.
Have you and/or hubbie considered the possibility of flying out for a bit of a recce given that you can get some very cheap airfares with the likes of
Oasis Hong Kong Airlines > Home to Hongkong and then say using
Welcome to Viva Macau! Simply Different from Macau (ferry from Hongkong) to Sydney.
It would be a good chance to check out the job market, and perhaps even get in touch with some prospective employers and also have a look at areas of Sydney to help decide where, or if in fact it ought to be Sydney.
There are quite a few regional centres on the coast that may have appropriate employment prospects, will have good schools and offer a cheaper and higher quality of life.
But you will have no problems finding schools in Sydney, and if you start with
Maps to Get Around Sydney by Public Transport Australia - sydney.com.au, you'll get a familiarisation with Sydney in general to have some idea of where work could be and then using domain, see what costs are likely to be.
Personally, I'd do some homework on regional cities as well to get a comparison and then consider that recce.
Once you settle on Sydney or somewhere else, on landing I would be looking at using either a motel or a holiday apartment, one that no lease is required for an initial couple of weeks while you look about for something more permanent.
You could make a booking for temporary accomodation over the internet so as you know exactly where to go on arrival.
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