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Original poster

How the hell do you relocate a family?

28 replies

Relocatiorelocation · 22/08/2022 13:11

I've moved cities a few times when younger, was grand, just load the car and off to go.

Now we're considering relocating with a family. Still within the UK.

How do you sell and buy houses, get the dc into a new school, and get a job all to start at the same time?

I've probably overthought it all, but it seems almost impossible. Do we need to rent for 6 months in new location? And enroll dc in the school and aim to buy there? What if we can't find a house?

DH can wfh so he's no bother, but I'm NHS and don't want any break in employment for various reasons.

Any advice please?

OP posts:
Original poster
Relocatiorelocation · 22/08/2022 17:27

Hopeful bump....

OP posts:
Bestcatmum · 22/08/2022 17:31

Last time I did it I rented for 6 months. The house sale fell through so I had to pay my mortgage and rent at the same time. It almost broke me. Nhs job started in October and house was finally sold in February. Landlord insisted on 3 month notice for his shitty flat so I had to find a home and complete the purchase in 3 months. I was so stressed my hair fell out.

Hellocatshome · 22/08/2022 17:35

Normally if you are relocating its for work so that part has a set start date and you work the rest around that. Renting if necessary while you find the right house.

babynoname22 · 22/08/2022 17:37

Following with interest as we also want to relocate from Yorkshire to wales with two kids!

RudsyFarmer · 22/08/2022 17:39

I have no idea. We tried to do exactly that nd it was impossible.

Hellocatshome · 22/08/2022 17:43

babynoname22 · 22/08/2022 17:37

Following with interest as we also want to relocate from Yorkshire to wales with two kids!

Ah then you will also have to factor in if your kids go to a Welsh speaking school. I have some distant family members move to Wales with their kids only to find the kids has to go to a Welsh speaking primary school, they had moved with zero research and hadn't realised this at all.

Afterfire · 22/08/2022 17:49

We relocated from London to Norfolk and being honest we just sort of went for it…! Handed notices in at work once we got a completion date on our new house, and contacted schools at that point I think to apply (we did look round beforehand). We had a tiny amount of savings but ultimately it was a bit of a leap of faith and we knew that if we didn’t find “some” work soon we’d be screwed. I went from working as a senior marketing manager to working part time as a bakery assistant for the first 9 months (!) it took me that long to find something else but the part time wages and savings kept us going.

We were so desperate to move (rough area etc) we just went for it. Best thing we ever did. (14 years on now).

DeathWinsAGolfish · 22/08/2022 17:57

We did it 11 years ago with 2 primary aged children.
DH got a new position, needed to give 3 months notice.
I put my notice in, I decorated (magnolia☺️) 5 of the rooms, luckily we'd just had 2 bathrooms replaced and a new kitchen built, plus the garden and drive landscaped, I know, perfect timing. The house sold within a week.
We then started to look at schools ofsted results and based our house search in specific catchment areas for primary and secondary. We were regularly driving 2.5 hours down the M5 to view houses, to buy or rent.
We miraculously found a house that had been rented out for sale, in a village we loved.
It was all very stressful and I wonder how it all happened in twelve weeks. So it can be done, but it's tricky.

Original poster
Relocatiorelocation · 22/08/2022 18:08

Thanks for all the inspiration! Is it vital that dc start a new school at the start of a term / half term do you think?
I'm on a 3 month notice, so I guess we can work from there. I think we should maybe sell up the house and go in to rented in the new location....I don't think my nerves will take trying to keep a chain going as well as new job and schools.

OP posts:
babynoname22 · 22/08/2022 18:50

@Hellocatshome DH is Welsh so will be moving where PIL are so know the stream luckily

Cynderella · 22/08/2022 19:02

Relocatiorelocation · 22/08/2022 18:08

Thanks for all the inspiration! Is it vital that dc start a new school at the start of a term / half term do you think?
I'm on a 3 month notice, so I guess we can work from there. I think we should maybe sell up the house and go in to rented in the new location....I don't think my nerves will take trying to keep a chain going as well as new job and schools.

No - children start schools mid-term all the time. When we did it, we kept kids at home for a week, so they could start after half term, but that was for our convenience.

We almost had to rent when house purchase fell through, but we found another and it all worked out for the best. Renting for a few weeks would have made it much easier, but it was going to be so expensive, so I was glad not to do it.

Gherkingreen · 22/08/2022 19:15

We relocated from UK to US a long time ago with DHs job (moved back now) with two young DCs.
We left 8 weeks after agreeing to the contract. It was a flurry of renting our house here, 48hr trip to find rental house in US and visit prospective school, sell or store surplus furniture in UK house, pack up belongings, arrange shipping, sort life admin stuff like banks, insurance, DCs vaccinations for US school entry. Now I think about it, literally no idea how we managed it in such a short time frame 😳 but these things are doable.

bigbadbarry · 22/08/2022 19:21

State schools make this really tricky - so much so that we have decided to send our DC private against all our principles. The area we just moved to won't allow you to apply for a state school place until 20 days before you want to start and I don't know how anybody manages to coordinate that.

Cynderella · 22/08/2022 19:25

bigbadbarry · 22/08/2022 19:21

State schools make this really tricky - so much so that we have decided to send our DC private against all our principles. The area we just moved to won't allow you to apply for a state school place until 20 days before you want to start and I don't know how anybody manages to coordinate that.

Sometimes this is because of demand - it's not that there are no places, just that you can't block one for a family whose move might fall through. Generally, heads will tell. you informally how likely it will be that a place will be available. Might not be guaranteed, but worth a try, especially once all the appeals are over.

gogohmm · 22/08/2022 19:26

Renting makes life easier because you can control the timing better. I have bought simultaneously, very stressful

Sleepysailor · 22/08/2022 19:28

We have moved exactly one year ago. Stressful as hell. The steps we followed, I’m working from home so this was easy, DH applied for jobs within a set time frame so that start date would coincide with the start of new term. Got one, handed in notice, house hunt commenced. This was a nightmare, nothing to buy, nothing to rent, nobody wanted to rent to a family. Cutting it really fine, we finally found a place to rent, And accepted an offer on our own house on the day we moved… Bought a house in the new area a few months later and children keep going to the schools picked which is slightly out of catchment area but in a town DH works in. They missed 10 days of school at the beginning of a new achoo year, not a huge deal.

Original poster
Relocatiorelocation · 22/08/2022 19:30

I've just seen a big glitch in my plan, I've just fixed the bloody mortgage for 7 years to get ahead of the interest rates, the redemption fee is HUGE.
The lender will allow a 3 month gap, so maybe it's doable, but I'll likely end up in a chain, bugger.

OP posts:
noscoobydoodle · 22/08/2022 19:42

We did this earlier this year with 2 primary and a nursery aged child. I work from home so no issue. We sold the house in November and my partner put in a transfer request at work. We had chosen the broad area we wanted and nursery age child went on local nursery waiting list and I spoke to LA and local academy trust about school places (i knew we would have issues getting school places). The housing market was nuts so we had a plan A (buy), B (rent) and C (stay with family and commute). We had an offer accepted on a house in January. I applied for school places in Feb and had to take up the places within 6 weeks so confirmed an April start date with nursery as well. My DH also confirmed his transfer at work for the same time. The house we bought wasn't ready at the time we had to take up school and nursery places and there was nowhere to rent for miles around so we ended up completing on our sale, putting everything in storage and pets in boarding and hopping between hotels, Airbnb and family for a few weeks and the kids started school (mid-term) and nursery and DH started his job. We completed on our house a few weeks later- a very nerve racking time that the sale would fall through, and cost us a lot of money that we would have put into the house but it all worked out and we are very happy!

BronzeSage · 22/08/2022 22:58

We sold and rented for a bit whilst we looked properly. Kids school places first, after selling.

I had carefully managed packing, split into rental property and storage unit for when we bought. I started packing and also offloading unwanted stuff weeks in advance, and kept a log book detailing what was on each box, and for where.

RagzRebooted · 26/08/2022 00:16

I've been wondering this for ages, OP. We'd be going from rented to buying, so not quite as complicated, but still struggling to get my head around it. If you're changing jobs, how does that work with getting a mortgage? How do you apply for schools without an address?

People do it though, obviously (some incredibly impressive and inspiring stories on this thread) so it must be possible. I moved a lot as a child, as did DH, all across the UK, but we've only ever moved our family 10 miles or less.

Would love to move us all across the country, but the thought of actually doing it is almost paralysingly daunting.

FindingMeno · 26/08/2022 08:24

Remember this is mumsnet and people's solutions are often to move to a cheaper area. Just like that.
It's bloody difficult co ordinating new jobs, school and nursery while going through the physical process of moving, especially while maintaining an income flow if you have no savings.
Research as well as you can, save a buffer and call in favours is all the advice I can offer.

NiceTwin · 26/08/2022 08:28

My father started a new job in the Midlands. He rented whilst doing so, we stayed in the family home with Mum.
He looked around houses to buy and any he liked Mum went to see.
We ended up moving in the October half term.
What I can't remember was how long he lived up there before we joined him.

brob · 26/08/2022 08:37

Don't you need proof of address before you can get the school place?

Pippylongstock · 26/08/2022 08:38

Following with interest because we are about to do this. But from overseas and with little power over timing. We are trying to figure out catchment areas for schools and house hunting (all from 1000s of miles away). This will be the third time I’ve moved internationally but the first time we will need to secure places for the kids (one started school in the UK and the other started at their international school). I had hoped we could move next summer but I don’t think that will be possible now. So it’s likely to be Christmas or even earlier). We are really just hoping for the best.

Pippylongstock · 26/08/2022 08:41

@Relocatiorelocation one option could be to rent your current house out for a bit? Most mortgage companies will allow you to do this