To refuse to view this house?

[NapQueen]

We are due to go on the market. We need a 3rd bedroom but we also need to stay within the small catchment area of the primary dc1 is at so dc2 will get in.

We love the area so that is good, close to everything we need and great transport links. We have a low budget but should get what we need within that on a street we like.

Dh is checking Rightmove daily like me, but is now looking further afield. Way outside catchment area, no metro line (one car household), hourly buses etc. The areas he is looking at are not great, but also entirely not practical. He is being swayed by the fact that we get "so much more for our money" without wondering why that is.

Aibu to refuse to view any houses that are outside of the school catchment? We rely on childminder to do school runs and am not uprooting dc1 and finding a new childminder just to get a house which is cheap for a reason?

Ive suggested we hold off 18m, get dc2 into the school and started, then look to widening our search area to some further out areas we both like? He "wants to see what our money would get us elsewhere" which in theory I understand. But why look at a house I am not prepared to move to?

I agree, he may be the kind of person who will need to see at least a couple of impractical places to properly understand why they won't work.

(I can relate to fantasy house hunting at the moment though, developing a very theoretical idea of somewhere we could move to in a year or two, but it might not actually be at all realistic)

If you sell very quickly, you can rent for a while, then you in a VERY strong position when it comes to buying.

Oh yeah, mine was like that. He was looking so far away from his own work he was going to meet himself coming the other way, but it met his other ludicrous criteria around garage, off street parking, train links to London (not for work, for a night out once every couple of months), character property in a village with a pub. Within a reasonable drive of SE London and W Kent.

In the end I said we'd seen two perfectly good houses in one day, we either pick one of them or he can carry on looking by himself and let me know when he's found his dream house, then I'll come and see it. We put an offer in that day.

no metro line (one car household), hourly buses etc

Just wondering which one of you would be using the car and who is expected to manage with hourly buses..

I think it's helpful to go and look and see what your budget gets you in different scenarios. It would also seem very churlish to refuse to go if your DH would like you to - unless he's booking in 20 bookings a week obviously.

Is there not a sibling policy at the primary school? Most around here have give siblings preference over distance/catchment (but realise this may be different in different areas)

Don't go and view houses if you don't think that you have any realistic interest in them. There's nothing worse than time wasters when you're selling a house.

So if you did move farther out, you would have to:

Find a new childminder
Have a longer journey to work
Find a new school for both chldren

Send him to look at them on his own, and also tell him to find a new childminder, research crime stats and schools standards in the new area, and time and cost the new commute. Once he has all the info, you will talk.

Bet he won't!

Tell him you'll consider moving further away if he commits to being solely responsible for the school run.

Easy, tell him he'll be responsible for the new school run, if you don't get into the same school.

Siblings ahead of distance in our area too.

So its gone under offer this afternoon! Thank god.

Still warrants a conversation about priorities and next steps etc but at least I dont have to go view this one