Sorting moving to a rental in a long distance move - help!

[hoorayforharoldlloyd]

We're moving south east to North East in Autumn and I'm starting to work out how to make the move work and be as easy as possible.

We have remote jobs so that's all fine and are just leaving a rental here so that's easy. However it's 3.5 hours away by train and we have a toddler. How do we sort out finding a house to rent? Call estate agents and say we're interested and how far ahead should we come up for a few days and see some places?

And how do we sort out a nursery place so we can work?

Feeling like it's all a big deal at the moment

We are relocating too. We have taken on a rental place through video viewing, and chosen nurseries from websites and chats with managers- they're not letting anyone in to see either of them anyway due to covid. Rubbish time to relocate ... not at all ideal but it will work out!

We went for 3 days to look at as many houses & schools as possible. It was a bit of a juggling act.

My experience has been different. No letting agents are accepting applications without a physical viewing and to make things worse they're getting snapped up. We're trying to move 3 hours away and it's costing a fortune in diesel. Just hope we find something soon.

We have done lots of international moves without always being able to view properties. Mostly this has worked out really well. I rely on videos/floorplans/satellite maps. Resources like mumsnet can also really help to find schools etc.
I have also had to rely on my DH when he has been in other countries ahead of us! I think that was more nerve racking, but it all worked out in the end.

@surreygirl1987 thanks, you've made me feel better although also feels like a mad way to do things!

Video viewing of rental I'm ok with but the nurseries does stress me out a bit. Suppose lots of people are having to do it though.

Hope your move goes well!

@LavendulaAngustifolia this sounds really rubbish and stressful

I'm in NE, OP, and currently in a rental to break chain so can advise on current market. Where are you looking?

Totally agree it's a mad way of doing things. However, even if I was currently living in the same town, I still wouldn't have been able to view those two nurseries as they're simply not allowing anyone in. Although we've got a rental place sorted we also want to buy, and are choosing based on achool catchment areas- yet the schools won't let us go and visit them. It's a very tough time to be relocating, but even people who aren't relocating are finding these big decisions hard due to covid rules.

I agree the rental thing is tricky. We did view a few in person a while ago and it was hard even to get a viewing. It was just luck that this one happened to pop up and was advertised as a 6 month let - I spotted it with half an hour or it going live, and rang up immediately. I think they thought a 6 month let would be tough to rent out, so they happily took my holding deposit for it. I think we got lucky on that. Otherwise, as a pp has said, going up there for a few days / a week to sort things out would probably be best. You could even ask if the nurseries are allowing anyone in (I'm pretty sure the nursery my children are currently at are letting people view it, so I think some are allowing it - just not the ones in the area we are moving too!). Good luck. It's stressful isn't it!

@Espirito - looking for whitley bay area - anywhere near you? Annoyingly this was already our plan pre-covid - now the coast has gone wild!

We have done the same as others, once DH moved first for work so he did the leg work (stayed in a Hotel and his work paid), another time we left the kids with my mum and just blitzed rentals and schools in three days

No OP, were nearer the town centre. My sister lives in WB though and it is really family friendly. Her kids are at school now, and they both went to the school nursery (Rockcliffe) but obvs that's not wraparound. There will deffo be excellent private nurseries all around the area. Are you aware that WB has the three tier system of first/middle/high? IME it works much better for kids than primary and secondary.

A huge bonus for you in looking is that students don't tend to live at the coast, so you won't have to plough through thousands of unsuitable/unavailable rental listings to find something like I did.

Are you all coming to Darlington by any chance?