Moving to a new area, rent then buy or jump right in & buy straight away?

[katymac]

I have form for moving cross country (Liverpool>London>Wallasey>Norfolk>???)

Not really sure where we are going next - right move only has limited filters so I'm search quite a wide area

Do I do the sensible thing & rent first or if I see a great house do I buy straight away?

indecisive much?

Unless you know the area reasonably well, or have family/friends who can advise you, I'd rent first.

I know quite a few people who bought first, and then regretted it once they learned their way around and figured out what area appealed most to them.

We are moving a long from where we currently live and are having to buy straightaway due to our mortgage and redemption fees. It makes me quite uneasy and I'd much prefer to rent first as it could be a very expensive mistake.

I am a bit worried about house prices going up tho'

Rent first. Certain areas within areas are better/worse/noisier/quieter/higher density of particular type of tenure, and there's very few ways of finding out about these kinds of things before you live there (though MN can help!).

I know MN have ruled out several different places

Buying is a nightmare!!

Definitely rent first. I had set idea on where I wanted to live when we moved areas, had visited lots of times for days, spoke to people who lived there and only ended up renting because a house we liked/ could afford didn't come up. So, so glad we did. Turned out my fixed area was not where I'd have wanted to live (after living there for a few months). It would have been such an expensive mistake had we bought there straight away. A rise in house prices during a 6 or 12 month period will be a fraction of buying / selling / stamp duty costs of buying then selling and buying again in the right area.

depends. we are moving to an area that we dont know at all. just like it. have researched all i can and bought best house in best location for the money we had

If you rent first then you are in a strong position when you do decide to buy, and it gives you flexibility if you are taking a punt on a new area.

Having said that, we just did a long distance move to a completely new area and jumped straight in with a purchase. It has worked OK for us, although with hindsight we may have got a slightly better deal on the house if we'd waited and watched the market, but then that would have been offset by rental and moving costs.

I couldn't be doing with the moving twice and the cost associated with that and renting, so for me, it's dead money and I'd prefer to buy. However I would research area, and then go and view etc before making a decision on house and location.

I'm hoping to complete in a couple of weeks and put everything into storage

Then we are planning on staying in the area and looking at property (then if we find somewhere finishing of our holiday/my midlife crisis)

As cash buyers we should be able to move fairly fast

My problem is if I apply for a job & they want me to start before we have bought - but I guess I can go to work from a motorhome

I think I can give us a dates by which we need to have found a house & if we haven't we rent (can't be in a motorhome in december!!)

I think, maybe?

Oh hell I don't know!

AirBnB might be a good stop gap for a few weeks if you get stuck?

We have bought straight away twice when moving to new areas. First time it just made sense financially to buy straight away due to the relocation package DH's work were offering. It worked out great, i absolutely loved the area we moved to. Have relocated again this year and we bought straight away as did not want to move twice with extra upheaval for the children. It has been ok, I am happy where we are although i think if we had rented first i probably would have chosen to buy in the next village for various practical reasons.

That's a good idea randomly - thanks

I do think one move is best for us now i have talked it out I can use the van/airbnb until I know what I want

Even moving around from town to town trying living in each

Definitely rent first. We moved cities and it was only by renting and getting to know the city really well that we found the perfect area for us. The parts of the city we read on the internet were the best were definitely not!!

Definitely rent.

I'm with Ligers - we moved to a city that we were totally new to. By renting we had a totally different experience we would never have done ordinarily (apartment in a cool area) & then would never have looked at the place we ended up buying.

Definitely rent. You can get a6 month contract so you wont have to worry too much about house prices.

Thats what we did and im so GLAD.

Our first house rental looked fabulous, great estate etc. However the crime rate was outrageous. We had our shed broken into after 3 days, break in attempts at the house, neighbours cars broken into etc. BUT ITLOOKED SO NICE

Avocado the police.uk website has online maps of reported crimes month by month for England / Wales / N Ireland, so that's one thing you can now check out in advance.

Thanks for that Randomly - I'll add that to my spreadsheet

All catagorised and ordere by priority - I am considering adding weightings....but that might be really sad

Sadly im in Scotland but thats excellent advice Randomly

I've always rented first before buying because you are not under pressure to buy within really limited time constraints. We've rented from 6 months to 18 mths and it definitely allows you to narrow down where you actually want to buy and also allows you to wait a longer period for suitable properties to come on the market. We've relocated 5 times in the last 18 yrs and rented/bought/sold each time. We've learnt to negotiate a decent relocation package to subsidise each move.

Avocado I've only seen crime maps by council for Scotland, which isn't so helpful (unless you live in Orkney or Shetland).

Sounds like you lived in an attractive area for crime?