Moving to a new area- how do we do it?!

[Arpeggiator]

Hi everyone,
I've found great advice previously on this board so I was hoping I could mine the 'property' hive mind again!
We're planning to move to a new city in the next year- but I am really stuck on what order we do things in- has anyone been in the same boat and could offer suggestions?

Basically I need to give three months notice on my job, my partner needs to give one month. We have DC who are 4 (so starting reception this year) and 1. We own where we live at the moment. Suitable jobs, good schools and suitable property exist where we are moving to. How do we do this? Is it possible without a rental in the middle? Do I apply for jobs and then move on the back of a job? But then selling and buying will take longer than three months! And what about schools? I know you can't apply without an address. We know the district where we want to live but not the exact area so we are still dithering a little, and it's a real trek and an overnight stay to get there from where we live currently.

Thank you for any suggestions!

My advice is if financially possible look for a job for the higher paid person, then rent, whilst looking for the other job ... might take time to settle the kids into childcare so budget for at least one month on one income. It's possible to buy straight away but very hard unless it's a flexible start/wfh job like academia

Thank you! Good idea to consider just one person finding a job at first as yes, I can imagine there will be a bit of time to settle the kids and I wouldn't want to rush sorting school and childcare if I can help it!

We did this last year. We didn't know exactly where we'd go until I got my new job so couldn't move before that as didn't know destination!

Three months' notice to finish old job. Worked out timeframes for applying for in-year school place. Got house on market. Found rental property (this was quite difficult). New Location is 200 miles away so difficult doing viewings. Tenancy had to start a month before we moved in order to have the address for the school place. Left work (both of us), DD left school. Moved into rental. DD started new school. I started new job. House sold.

Started looking for house to buy. Eventually found one and bought it (this took months - still haven't moved into it!).

Our new location is lovely and well worth moving but it's been very stressful and expensive and we've not finished the process yet. It would be easier if the new job offered relocation support or an allowance.

Initially we considered selling and buying without renting inbetween but this process is taking a long time at the moment and there was no flexibility in my work start date so we had to be in New Location by a certain date. The advantage of renting is we know the area a lot better and have ended up buying in a different part to where we thought we would, if that makes sense?

@RidingMyBike thank you so much for such a detailed reponse. Yes we have the same issue with location- we have an ideal in mind but it really depends on jobs. I'm worried about the school issue, that local schools will be full, or that we will not have a new address in time for the applications for the next year- I think I need to do more research into in-year applications and how they work.

I imagine it could be area dependent but the area we moved to has more, smaller, primaries, so easier to find a local school than at old house. Old House didn't have a primary school within a mile. We found that, contacting the six schools closest to the rental house, all of which were within a mile of it, the four that replied(!) had at least one space available in the right year, some had several. One school didn't respond, and the other the email address on website didn't work. So we were confident we'd get a place somewhere. Two of the schools were OFSTED good and two requires improvement but we'd have been happy to have any of those.

It is a bit of a nerve wracking leap in the dark!

We could only apply (in year) 20 school days before we needed the school place which focussed our minds! We had the application ready to submit (four choices of school ranked in preference order) on that day and got confirmation of a place at our first choice within a week.