Would you rent before you buy?

[Whatam]

We are first time buyers looking to buy in a completely different area than where we are living in (move from London to a commuter town). We are renting right now. There are two ways to go about it :

1. We continue staying at our current place (we have two month's notice period). Buy a house and then directly move.
2. We give notice here and then after two months move to a rented place. And then look at houses and buy.

While I like the idea of staying in the area first and also being able to easily go for open houses, the cons are the moving costs/efforts and again getting stuck in a lease with the second place. Which option would you go for and why? Schools are not a consideration.

I moved from London to a rural area. I knew within six months that it was the wrong choice, but it took me almost four years to move back to London again because of the financial side of things (stamp duty paid on purchase, mortgage arrangement fees, finding buyer for the house etc making immediate move impossible.) Had I rented, I’d have avoided all that. I have no intention of ever leaving London again, but if I did I’d definitely rent first.

If you don’t have that as a concern then your current arrangement sounds as though it would work better than messing around with finding a new rental and locking into a lease without knowing how long it would be for - although you can always request a six month break clause which would give you a lot more freedom.

Disadvantages: If you rent you will almost certainly have to do a six month contract. You will end up moving more than once and it is very stressful. You will be paying 6 months to another person when you could be paying down your mortgage. Prices are going up all the time. Where I live in West Midlands I have read that house prices went up a massive 6 % in November alone. If you wait it may cost you a lot more by the time you are in a position to view, male offer and get it accepted and complete on new mortgage. Advantages: you will get a good feel for the area and it may help you to decide if you want to live there or not. You will find out about the amenities in the area, opening times etc. You will have missed the opportunity for the stamp duty freeze anyway so no mad rush. On balance I would move to buy asap due to a rising market place.

@ComtesseDeSpair

I moved from London to a rural area. I knew within six months that it was the wrong choice, but it took me almost four years to move back to London again because of the financial side of things (stamp duty paid on purchase, mortgage arrangement fees, finding buyer for the house etc making immediate move impossible.) Had I rented, I’d have avoided all that. I have no intention of ever leaving London again, but if I did I’d definitely rent first.

If you don’t have that as a concern then your current arrangement sounds as though it would work better than messing around with finding a new rental and locking into a lease without knowing how long it would be for - although you can always request a six month break clause which would give you a lot more freedom.

It is not a rural area so we don't have that as a concern. Just the thought of getting to know the place more before making such a big decision to buy is enticing. Where we live currently, it is such a nice area overall but some roads can be really bad. And we would never know those roads without living there. We don't know anyone who lives in the area as well. But moving is so stressful and expensive. Getting settled in one place and then moving again. Being locked into a lease. It is so confusing.

Yes! I'd lived in London all my life primarily north of the river. I decided I could get more for my money south so rented in Brixton for a year to get a feel for South London and surrounding areas. Eventually bought in Forest Hill. Would deffo not have taken the plunge and committed to purchasing in an area I knew little about, without having rented there or close by prior. You really do need to get a feel for the area, assess the transport links, green space etc.

@Smallgoon

Yes! I'd lived in London all my life primarily north of the river. I decided I could get more for my money south so rented in Brixton for a year to get a feel for South London and surrounding areas. Eventually bought in Forest Hill. Would deffo not have taken the plunge and committed to purchasing in an area I knew little about, without having rented there or close by prior. You really do need to get a feel for the area, assess the transport links, green space etc.

Howdy, FH neighbour! I absconded here here two months ago, from Whitechapel. It’s very different and yes, I’m definitely glad I was able to get to know the area by coming down most weekends and spending a whole day at a time here getting to know it.

OP do you have DC? If not have you considered not moving twice, but putting most of your stuff into storage (those mobile storage unit companies are excellent for this) then looking for a short term furnished rental in the area you want to buy? You still have some of the expense, but none of the stress.

@ComtesseDeSpair Howdy! Though I have just re-read and laughed at my post given I was moving to another area in the same city, which can't really be compared to leaving London for a rural town

Us Londoners can be a precious bunch. Still my point remains, I wouldn't move anywhere without having lived there for a while first. Even things like walking back late at night from a safety perspective etc are important to me, which you can't really get a feel for if you're only visiting at the weekend during the day.

I would take out a six month rental which would give time to look around at different properties and be sure you want to put down roots in the new area. When the six months is up, landlords are usually happy to continue renting to you; also if you wanted to move before the end of the tenancy, they'll generally let you go but it could easily take you six months to find the right place.

Good luck.

Even if you found a house to buy tomorrow it can easily take six months for it to go through.
I'd definitely rent first. Unless you know an area really well it's very different going to a place for the odd weekend and living there full time.

I could take months to find a new place to rent anyway, a lot of places are advertised but not available for a long time, then you have to add on the minimum term of 6 months. I'd stay where you are and start looking at houses to buy straight away

Thanks everyone for your inputs. Really appreciate it.

Partly depends on finances.
If you can afford to spend money on rent, plus to pay movers/for storage and other services which cost, but will make moving twice less painful, then rent first. If you will be financially stretched to do this and have to DIY everything, it will be hugely stressful and unpleasant and worth avoiding if possible.

If you don't know the area that well i'd rent first even if it's slightly more costly. besides it takes like six months to buy at the moment so you'll still be paying rent for the majority of that time anyway.

Get to know which areas you like and what are the important things in the area you want to be close to. Buying is a BIG financial commitment for you to then change your mind.

We moved from the east end on London to Surrey back in the 1990s

We followed the train line as we both commuted to London. Schools were an issues for us though

Back then, no internet, no Facebook, no on line news etc. So we went often, different days of the week, different times of the day to look at what was going on. We’d pick up the local free paper when we visited to read what was happening around the area. We used to get the information in school rankings in the areas of interest too

All this is online today so you can find out a lot of information about the area you want to movs to. Plus visit often

If you’re satisfied with your research, then move there, as in buying. You’re quite right about two lots of moving fees, being tied to a new lease etc.

Being in rented with only 2 months notice, you’re still an ideal buyer.

Just take your time to research the area. Today with Airbnb being available, you could even do a weekend stay in the area to be sure you like it. Go for it!

Definitely rent.

We only moved @ 50 miles, I knew the area a little, had targeted a number of roads that I wanted to live on but nothing came up so we ended up renting.

During rental period, completely changed my mind about the roads I wanted to live on - issues cropped up that I would only have known about actually living in the area. Spending time here made me realise I wanted to be in another pocket of the area.

As for finances, we actually saved money by renting. Wasn't much difference in terms of rent / what we'd have been paying in mortgage, and whilst we weren't paying down the mortgage whilst we rented, we reckon we saved more than that on the purchase price of the new house by being in such a good position (no chain). If we'd have moved to the "wrong" house just because we didn't want to rent, it would have been far more costly to go through the buy& sell process again.

Practically it was great too as we kept the rental on for 2 weeks after we got the keys for the new house which meant urgent repairs / decorating could be done in new house before we moved in, and moving day was much less stressful.