Sold my property but not sure what to do next while I find somewhere to buy

[Redqueenheart]

I sold my London flat faster than expected (cash buyer who is not in a chain) and everything is progressing at a really quick pace.

But I have no found anywhere to move to yet and I am still looking at a couple of areas I want to relocate to. I want to move to the seaside to semi-retire and still trying to decide whether I want to go for Folkestone in Kent or a Scottish town like Dunbar or Troon.

What would people do in this case?

Try to find a short-term rental (I really don't want to be tied up for a year into a rental property) and put most of my things in storage?

Try to convince a friend who has a spare room to let me stay with her for a couple of months (that might not even be an option as I would not want to impose on her) while I house-hunt?

I am so, so happy to have sold this flat because flats in my building could not be sold until a few months ago ( we finally managed to get a fire safety EWS1 certificate in place showing no cladding/no work required) that I don't want to do anything to jeopardise the pace of the sale but I am also starting to realise I need to make a move on to get myself somewhere to live faster than expected!

Any advice?

Northumberland is truly beautiful. But chilly....my goodness, yes.
If you're an artist (like me) there is so much up there to paint if you do landscape, you'd be spoilt for choice. Coast, castles, moors, the Wall and its wild country- it's fabulous. And did I say cold?

BlueMongoose we moved up here from Twickenham in August 1999 and I remember finding my biggest jumper to wear :) It's the wind off the North Sea - stupidly I didn't use enough moisturiser to protect my face, and now have a lot of broken veins in my cheeks.