Are we right to prioritise location? (hunting for a rental house)

[LucyGru]

Not in UK. Shitty rental market here.

A small, shitty house in walking distance of the shops and highschool, or a nicer. bigger house 15 minutes up the motorway?

• We live in one of the most expensive cities in the world.
• Traffic is awful and 15 minutes can easily become an hour.
• We have 3 teenagers who are all busy with part time jobs, sports commitments, social lives etc. None of them drive yet, and we'll struggle to afford a car each for them.
• DH and I both work full time.
• I'm just imagining moving out of the area and spending my whole life in the car. Buses a possibility for the kids of course, but would def be 2 X bus to get to school.
• Currently we all walk to work / school or take a provided school bus, and it's a 10 minute round trip to drive to collect or drop anyone to anything.

Examples of shitty houses I'm looking at:

• Current tenants are hoarders (landlord says he'll clean it out).
• No parking at all, not even on street because it's a no parking zone.
• Old, damp, crumbling wreck (very lax rental laws here).

Where, roughly, are you?

I wouldn't move somewhere that meant everyone was reliant on the adults transporting them everywhere.

Nicer house + new closer school

Changing school not an option for eldest. Would be really hard for middle. Possible for youngest.

How many hours in the car versus how many hours in the shitty house?

Living in a damp unsafe house will potentially wreck your health.

Have you correctly identified the real problem? Why are you even in that country?

Ha! I know. But here we are, and it's easier said than done moving away from jobs and kids who are halfway through highschool qualifications. Plus we have been outside UK for more than 2 years so my kids are not entitled to residents rates for university. It is what it is.

Maybe we should say...
Shitty house in EXCELLENT location - yes
Shitty house in meh location - no, go up the motorway.

The hoarder house could be lovely. I'd buy it if I had a couple of million and make it gorgeous. Just nervous that the landlord is going to wipe a damp sponge over the birdshit and say job done.

But here we are, and it's easier said than done moving away from jobs and kids who are halfway through high school qualifications.

You need to put these choices on an imaginary set of balance scales.

Left scale: SCHOOL Right scale: FAMILY LIFE

Which weighs most? Which is more important? I am not convinced your country of residence is important. Things are normally easy choices.

We're not moving country!

Is worst case on hoarder house that the landlord doesn't clean properly and you have to do it?

Or is it you discover animal droppings have rotted the floorboards but he wont fix it?

If the first option then I would go for it, get some hazmat suits and get stuck in ( or hire someone).

And yes, location every time.

No suburbs? Outlying areas of the city? Smaller but less shitty property (kids share bedrooms)? Somewhere out of town but on a better bus/transport route? Car sharing in the family?