Hi Grant,
Employer sponsored visas are quick but ONLY once you get a sponsor. You are tied to that employer for 2 years (usually) and cannot change employer unless the new employer is willing to sponsor you.
You can get permanent employer sponsored visas too (
Skilled Workers Permanent Visa Options- Employer Sponsored Workers - Workers - Visas & Immigration) but I don't think they're as common.
You can apply for
PR as soon as you get here - there are some previous posts on this (sorry I can't remember what the visa number is but there is a special one to convert from temp to
PR).
Medicare - it depends where you are from. Some temp visas will still cover you on a temp visa because of the relationship between the countries (for example from UK you are covered but from South Africa you are not).
Houses - it's true that you cannot buy an old house (as in one lived in by an Australian) unless you can get FIRB approval and several members on this forum have been given FIRB. FIRB (Foreign Investment Review Board) is usually given if they know that you are going to live in the house. FIRB was set up to stop foreigners buying up a lot of property from aboard, so only a certain amount is approved to sell to foreigners at any one time.
Hope that helps,
Karen