I have to move house. Feeling overwhelmed. Does anyone want to help me?

[BirthdayRainbow]

I currently live in the south and need to move north. I've viewed one house when I was visiting my dc. I'm currently not well so can't think straight. Might be easier for bullet points.
I have cats and a dog and it's five hours so clearly can't go up constantly.
I know roughly the areas so that is the easyish bit. It is more the practicalities of how to plan viewings if the houses are spread out and listed with different agents.
I realise this probably sounds a ridiculous problem but I've had a really crap few months and I'm struggling 😳

Can you call some agents and ask how far ahead you need to book viewings? Then go stay with your DC for a couple of days and see as many as possible? Obviously I have no idea what availability is like where you're looking. I understand it's difficult at the moment though, with houses being snapped up quickly.

Hope you feel better soon

Could you go and stay with your dc for a few weeks and do a bulk amount of viewings? Or stay in a hotel/airbnb and do loads of bookings? Or could your dcs go and do viewings on your behalf and video call you to show you the houses inside whilst at the viewing?

Is there a local Facebook group? On the one for my town people planning on moving here will ask about particular streets and areas, where exactly to avoid, even down to which end of the street or which numbers to swerve. That could help you narrow your search a bit further. Then you could ask the estate agents if they have a video walk-through of any of the properties you like, that can be more accurate than photographs in showing scale of rooms.

I wouldn't be able to take my dog and stay with dc but I could maybe ask a friend. The house I did view I booked about five weeks in advance as that was when I would be going up North.

Health wise it's going to be quite a while before I'm better but sadly I need to move asap.

Thank you for your reply 💐

What area are you looking at? Could you rent first and buy from there?

I missed the other replies. I can't be away weeks. I have cats and a dog and my dc is at uni. He has said he will view for me but he's studying and getting around might be tricky so I don't want to put on him.

I am going to have to see if I can sort out care for the cats as I could possibly take my dog and see if I can stay with a friend. If not I don't know what I'll do as even if I could go there and back in a day I can't leave the dog home alone or take her.

Ask your dc to view some, and make a short list for you. Save you the stress. My dd bought a house sight unseen, during covid , because she was isolated. Her friend did the inspection and dd trusted her judgement, and purchased the place. Easy !

I can't face the upheaval of renting. I need security and to be settled.

thank you all again

Actually maybe my friend would view for me. I think she said she would help but I'm not sure how she meant. Would you view a house for a friend ?

Can you not do online viewings, at least to narrow things down? I’m in Aus so maybe it’s totally different but you can easily get an agent to do a “walk through” if it’s not available online already. Good luck.

I've just been looking at photos on line but will look into a video viewing.

it would be so much easier if I wasn't moving far. Just makes everything harder.

We did the opposite move to so from North to South but in a similar buyers market situation. Through speaking to people who lived in the area we were considering and internet searches including mumsnet discussion threads I found out where was more desirable and not desirable to live. Then I found 22 houses in our price range in those areas. I contacted the estate agents, convinced them I was a serious buyer who wanted to move quickly and would be coming down in 2 weeks time for a long weekend and make an offer after that. We saw all the houses we wanted except for one with Knight Frank (they seemed lazy). We did make an offer and moved quickly. Would kennels for your dog and a local taxi for the viewings help?

A friend of mine lived abroad and got a friend to view, and did a video tour. Offered and bought. It can be done!

Sorry you're having a tough time OP 💐

I moved about 2 hours away and most agents offered a live video walkthrough so I could say "look more at this section".

I didn't end up doing that more than a couple of times as I could stay with mum, but it filtered out a couple that weren't worth a visit in person.

Is the market still moving fast up north? In the south east, it seems quite slow - was crazy busy when I started looking in 2021, but there has been a drastic change since then.

This isn't a ridiculous problem, it is quite a difficult logistical issue. Especially as you aren't well.

What area are you looking at op?

Thank you for all your brilliant ideas, for being so kind, for not thinking I am ridiculous and for good health wishes.

I am looking West Yorkshire ish. I need to be able to get to Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax, Sutton in Craven areas.

Don't want to put dog in kennels as she's never been left in any and I can't leave her overnight at home on her own. The cats would be okay overnight but I don't think I could with a dog.

One house I really liked on paper has been for sale since June so I'd say not moving fast but it don't really know.

We’re considering a future move about 5 hours away so I know how tricky it is. We’d never kennel our dog either, he’s too anxious.

What we’ve done so far is to book self catering dog friendly holiday cottages and then spend time exploring the area, following up on possibilities we’ve seen on rightmove (just from the kerb, not viewings). This has been a massive eye opener in terms of location and helped us to eliminate quite a few areas. You’d need to leave the cats in a cattery (?) so I’m not sure how pricey that is.

I agree the video tours on rightmove are really useful (annoying though the terrible music is!) Another helpful tool is Google earth. You can really see the lie of the land nearby - busy roads, neighbours overlooking, industrial lots. Street view is also great, I’ve “walked” down so many streets that way. I’m also on local Facebook groups to get a feel for community, crime and contentious planning issues.

To be fair, for us it’s more of a long term plan so there’s no pressure which I appreciate is very different, but I hope the street view and Google earth ideas etc help.

Could you see if you could get a good rate with an Airbnb and take the dog with you? Put the cats in a cattery and spend a week or two up north and book as many viewings as you can manage in that time. Last year when I was house hunting I was some days viewing multiple houses each day.

Or would you be interested in a new build? You could look to see if any of the big developers are building in the area and see if they are building the same style of house near your current house?
A family member bought their house off plan and viewing another house of the same style and layout at another location.

Don’t forget to check out what the local area is like online.Have a look on local Facebook groups to get a feel for good and bad areas in the places you are looking at.

I remember a thread on here where a lady was thinking about moving to Lincolnshire and people came up with pros and cons
Just off the top of my head Cleckheaton area is in the middle of all them.
Are you wanting village, town good doctors/hospital access etc need to be near friend?
I would view online once you get an idea of an area.
Robertown is a lovely village and Wyke.

You need to go and stay for a couple of days and do loads of viewings and just get a pet sitter for the animals.

We move a lot and have animals including horse-it’s easy enough to get people to care for them in your home to go away.

With our last relocation we spent several weekends staying in the area to work out where we liked the most.

Thank you all again so much.

Funnily enough my son found a possible house in Cleckheaton last night. I'd not considered there. He's currently home from uni and could see how stressed I was last night. I used to live in Wyke as a child and emotionally couldn't live there again but thank you. I havent got Facebook but my son might.

I had ignored the videos on the house details as thought photos would be better so I'll go back and look at them. I'm also going to make notes as I currently have about six tabs open with potential houses. If my STBEH would stop letting us down and have the animals then I could have a few days away to look. I'm stressing about money for petrol and hotels as I'm also paying for a divorce and it's currently heading for 4 x what I expected and aforementioned twat is about to stop paying for my medical treatment. I can see that it is understandable how stressed I am. Stress also makes my condition worse so it's a vicious circle. I'm waking up every money exhausted and nauseous and I'm doing 100% of everything on my own.

Videos are more truthful than photos when it comes to houses because estate agents are frequently using wide-angle camera lens to take the photos. I can look at houses that are currently up for sale that are identical to mine and the rooms always look bigger than what they actually are, some of them are incredibly misleading.

Post on here for local knowledge even the house you are considering or at least the area. The Property/DIY board is the best for this sort of thing. Any chance of taking some time off work and staying in an airbnb up here that takes dogs?

I am in West Yorkshire and you have listed a few places up here, so name change if you want some sense of anonymity.

Do you need to be anywhere for work purposes? Are the places you listed to get to friends/family? It helps if you list budget, number of bedrooms and what kind of area you are looking for ie dog walks on the doorstep, local community, local shops etc.

We did a move from the Midlands up to West Yorkshire, I wish we had rented first but then it was over 20 years ago and I wasn't on MN back then. Lots of people with local knowledge can help you, the removals bit, pay for them to pack you up.