Estate Agents

[Clarkonian]

Hi,

We are moving from overseas to Greenwich and really need a decent estate agent to show us around. Can anyone recommend someone?

Thanks!

While I am asking, any advice on state primary schools, places to live and furniture stores would be appreciated - not asking much I know!
We are moving from overseas, have no family locally, and have two boys (4 and 6) that i need to get into a school in the next month. I know, tall order!

Hi,

We moved to London from 'overseas' about four years ago. We learned a lot. We have never relied on a single estate agent - in my (rental) experience, they just don't have time for you. We used apps and websites to get our places. Zoopla is a good way to get access to the local property market (rental and buying) to get an idea. But again, in my (rental) experience, almost anything on the app/website is either already gone, overpriced (so hanging about) or dreadful. We found our places by contacting over 80 agents (Zoopla has a spam function that lets you do this) and then being on hand for rental viewings with 10 minutes notice. This meant we got to see properties before they were listed in Zoopla - so had our pick. If you're buying, I'm guessing you need better relationships with a few key estate agents (can send you names).

RE: housing, am guessing you know that London has been described as a property 'super' bubble. In the three years I've lived in Greenwich, we've seen 10,000 apartments being built/in development. There's a limited stock of 'traditional' housing. Nothing is cheap.

My boy is about to turn three, so I've no good advice on schools (private or state would be my only question). I believe most state schools are oversubscribed (I know that getting a nursery here has been a complete nightmare for us and I'm not looking forward to schools).

Contact me directly if you need more info - Greenwich is a good, family-safe area - lots to do and see. And good luck!

Hi,
We recently moved here from Canada so have been through a lot of the things that you are and will soon be encountering. We used Rightmove to view properties online and contacted lots of estate agents. One thing we did was request a short-term rental so that we could explore more areas of London/Greenwich than the one we ended up in (our tenancy is up in November and we are very glad we chose 6 month rental as the place we are in is not ideal).
Read reviews of prospective estate agents on Google. We unfortunately ended up with someone we consider crooked and would have been forewarned had we simply checked their online reviews.

I think you have to contact the local borough about schools as your children would be entering at the start of the school year and you would not have had their names down on the waiting list. OFSTED reports are available online, and Foxtons has a handy list of schools in each borough with an overview of OFSTED ratings (www.foxtons.co.uk/education/). Schools are already out for summer holidays so it won't be possible to visit them until September, however as your youngest is 4 you may have a bit of leeway before deciding where to send them.

Feel free to PM me if you want more in-depth info or if I can be of help with anything specific, and also if you want to meet up once you arrive! Good luck with the move, it will all come into place eventually even if it feels a bit mad and hectic now.