Moving house things to consider

[StayorG0]

We’re running out of space so have put our house on the market to look for a larger family home. It’s me, husband and son aged 1 year. We’ve seen a beautiful house only 10 minutes drive from where we currently live, however it would put us in a different t school catchment area. I don’t know how catchments work as my son is only 1! But I had hoped he would go to school in the same area as his cousin (my sister’s child), who lives where we do now. I suppose I hoped we could share school runs etc if needed. My parents also live where we do now, and they would help with after school care etc.

But the schools where we've seen the house are just as good, although it’s not where I grew up so I’m not really familiar with them.

Also beautiful house has a shared drive so that’s putting me off a bit. There’s not a lot of nice houses we’ve seen locally so I think I’m getting disheartened by it all. Our house has only had one viewing in a fortnight on the market.

Sorry I’ve just written all my thoughts down in the order they came to my head! As I’m feeling a bit stressed thinking about it all the time. Apologies if this is the wrong place to write this.

If anyone has any thoughts or things to keep in mind when choosing a home, it would be very useful!

Your son is only one - schools and their catchment areas can and do change a lot in a few years so dont move home based purely on schools.

Key things to consider are:

• costs and affordability
• what your current and projected needs are likely to be
• the neighbourhood (including immediate neighbours) and local amenities
• impact on commute/transport links
• how long are you planning to be there.

If the property is only 10 minutes drive from where you live, would that really impact that much on grandparents helping out?

Check the admissions criteria for the school you'd like him to go to, then reassess.
Do you really want to move again in two years? (You apply when they're three for children born later in the school year)
Or are you going to compromise on education for the house you want?
Everyone has differing priorities...

Forget "beautiful" houses (unless they're unique!) Look at the location, and adapt what you buy.

Thanks for the replies. There are properties closer to home/family under our budget but they would need new kitchen/bathroom and lots of decorating. We wouldn’t have the cash straight away whereas we could borrow more to have this “beautiful” house already done. But I suppose we could do things gradually.

Schools are my priority so I’m leaning towards staying local. The grandparent thing is just because my son and his cousin would be at different schools so if they were to help with collecting from school etc, it would be difficult to collect both kids on time. Maybe I’m thinking too far ahead!! But we don’t want to move again in 2 years, we want this to be a 30 year home until we downsize after the child(ren) leave home!