Accepted offer but we can’t find anywhere to buy- feeling very disheartened!

[Sunset54]

Hi All,

I’m working myself up in to a tizz so any reassurance gratefully received!

We bought our dream home 4 years ago but after moving in we discovered it needed a lot of work doing to it. Four years in, spending pretty much every weekend fixing and renovating the house it’s taken it’s toll and during a particularly stressful period of renovation last year (cowboy builder who damaged a lot of the house, courts etc) we decided that this year we’d sell it.

There are other reasons to sell- builder lives nearby and secondary schools being two! We have a great grammar nearby but the state options are woeful and with two, albeit bright, children we decided to cut out losses and move somewhere with better state options.

It’s been on the market for a month and we had an offer in the first week. We’ve now accepted an offer on the condition that we have time to find a house but the EA is pushing to get things moving. We have an area in mind and I’ve been saving houses on Rightmove for months ready to start viewing them.

However, now it’s come to booking viewings we’re finding big problems with each of them and we’re getting pretty disheartened. Problems include no dining room, no space for home office (we both work from home), busy road to the front, tiny kitchen, requires full renovation. The other issue is we’re selling a large period property and a lot of the options coming up are new builds on large housing estates which wouldn’t work for us.

We’ve seen a couple of houses that look lovely but one is a bit overpriced in my opinion (has sat on the market for 8 months) and the garden isn’t attached to the house.

Three people who viewed ours said they’d accepted offers at least 6 months before and they were still looking. Is this just the case now? Should we expect it to take months to find somewhere?

Also if anyone can recommend somewhere in a nice village, access to good schools, period 3-4 bed house with space for a home office for £550k it would be much appreciated.

@Sunset54 Definitely avoid Winsford. The outskirts of it are nice but the town centre is very run down and has lots of issues with antisocial behaviour etc.

Knutsford is nice as is Holmes Chapel, Wilmslow, Prestbury but all quite expensive areas. But it depends on what you’re willing to compromise on.

@AngelicCurls we’re actually currently living in West Yorkshire! Our house is in the catchment for a grammar school and then a couple of poorly performing state schools (which are also notoriously a bit rough).

Thanks for the link and we’ll take a look at Holmfirth.

What does everyone use to look at school performance etc? I’ve been using Snobe but our local grammar which is well regarded is coming up as rated a C overall and a B for academics despite 98% of pupils scoring higher than a 5 in maths and English which doesn’t make sense. Holmforth high school you mentioned gets a C for academics and B overall.

@RandomMess thank you for the suggestion, we’d not looked at Lancaster. We’ve seen a nice house in Overton- do you know if it’s nice over there? it seems to have primary schools nearby but the secondary’s are a distance so it’s not which the house would be in the catchment for.

@Sunset54 tbh we used the ofsted reports, local parent feedback and then open evening feel. We really like the ethos of Holmfirth high, strict but fair head with a good rep, and lots of extra curricular stuff going on. We really rate Holmfirth as an area, lots going on and close enough to Leeds/manchester/Sheffield for city life. Lots of nice restaurants locally as well, great walking, close to the peaks but not quite peaks prices and def cheaper than Cheshire, I’m from wilmslow originally and defo couldn’t get the same space for the same money.

Yes Overton is nice.

Secondary schools. Boys and Girls Grammer Schools, Ripley is CofE and you need church points to get in.

Our Ladies takes non-catholics, the other 3 secondary schools are decent. I assume there is school transport.

This looks suitable, it looks like it's set back from the road, it definitely has 2 rooms that can be used for WFH.
https://www.zoopla.co.uk/for-sale/details/68275102/?search_identifier=94b1ac7228a2e5a71aa289c732b993d4b84148e2a9da9201b516743ced607133

It’s got a grammar and an outstanding school within half a mile but it’s not in a village. Looks like a nice town though. Disclaimer: I am not from Yorks.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152190572#/?channel=RES_BUY

Or this half a mile from a good school, and presumably you could still try for the grammar. I think I’ll move to Ripon.

If top of North Yorks is a consideration then I'd look into the zone around Thirsk/Northallerton/Stokesley/Yarm. Lots of lovely villages, plenty in your price range, some great schools, lovely scenery and people. You'll get even more by going towards East Cleveland or the moors and the coast, but you trade off having the amenities of these market towns

Have to agree with Yarm and surrounding areas. Mainly new properties but very good comprehensive schools. Both Conyers and Eaglescliffe.

An advantage of moving into rented is it could firm up if an area is right for you

@AngelicCurls we’ve added Holmfirth and North Yorkshire(NY again after previously discounting it for being too far from in-laws- partner has changed his mind) to the list.

My partner, originally from Birmingham, loves the West Yorkshire countryside, and so is now pushing for Holmfirth. Is there any issue with it being close to Huddersfield ? I know Huddersfield can be a bit rough. Do the kids have any issues going to Huddersfield for Greenhead?

The government comparison website along with other websites have been really helpful to get starting point idea about schools.

Thanks everyone who’s suggested areas and sent links for houses. It’s so kind and is really helping us!

I LOVE this one! The prices are so low because of problems with gypsum in Ripon and sudden sinkholes appearing in people’s gardens and the associated demolition costs, unfortunately. There’s a 3D map available showing safer areas to live but houses aren’t coming up for sale there.

We’ve added Ripon to Burton Leonard to the search which should fall in to the catchment for Ripon schools and maybe some Harrogate schools.

We’re also now looking at Ilkley, Otley and Menston which we know well and have good schools.

There are two lovely houses for sale in Ilkley on a lovely street I’ve previously admired but they don’t have gardens (small area to the front overlooke by the street and tiny (1x2m) courtyard at the back. We have two cats, one of which likes to run around outside, and we currently own a large paddock and two gardens so I’m not sure if that’s a compromise we should make.

@Sunset54 no issues being close to Huddersfield, the rougher areas are towards the north of the town so well away from Holmfirth. Greenhead is really well rated for 6th form. If you fancy looking round ours let me know, we’re just outside holmfirth but walkable, lovely walks from the door and plenty of space for 2 kids 😊

Hi OP.

We’ve moved back to West Yorkshire from Shropshire, where you get decent housing and good schools but despite being near my parents it wasn’t for us after a good while trying it out.

There’s not a lot coming on where we are too, which is just as well as we haven’t sold in Shropshire yet. We can’t pay both rent and mortgage for much longer, so I’m hoping things perk up soon!

We used to live in Menston and have friends there. St Mary’s is good but hard to get into catchment wise and there’s a catholic primary school requirement. Ilkley grammar is good. Not sure about Guiseley.

My parents are moving up too, looking at North Yorkshire. I’ll make sure to check the gypsum risk, as I don’t want them to have subsidence issues in their retirement!

We sold and moved into a rental. We are still there a year later - but in that time the houses we were originally looking at have dropped quite a lot in price, we've saved quite a chunk towards the next purchase, and we are in a great position to move quickly when we eventually find our perfect house.
It's also really opened our minds to other options (both location and house style) that we'd never have considered before

https://storeysofcheshire.co.uk/ would be my go to. You can request help finding a property - all lovely and lots in your budget.
storeysofcheshire.co.uk/request-a-property-sourcing-consultation/
Northwich way and surrounding areas. Lots of good high schools around there. Places in budget.
Here's some others off rightmove.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147895763#/?channel=RES_BUY
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147048818#/?channel=RES_BUY
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/149609891#/?channel=RES_BUY

And no ,avoid Winsford. That's why it's cheap! Hartford, Cuddington, Acton Bridge, Higher Whitley, Comberbach, Marbury - all lovely and great schools.

Holmfirth is about twenty minutes in a car from Huddersfield Centre and the university in Huddersfield is a good one (I did my degree there ) it has a very village feel in the centre with some decent food venues and wine bars , watch last of the summer wine it was filmed there, and there is an excellent live music venue too we were there on Tuesday night , we live in Halifax but it doesn't have the vibe you are looking for more industrial Victorian feel .

Thanks everyone. In the last week, and thanks to the huge amount of help from everyone, we’ve extended our search areas to Ilkley, Otley, Menston, Boston Spa, Holmfirth and Eynsham (yes, a wide geographical spread but the majority of them we’re very familiar with).

We went to our first viewing yesterday in Ilkley. Beautiful 4 bed Victorian terrace but not quite right for us. It looked very well finished on paper and the kitchen was beautiful but the rest of the house was very lived in and would need a lot of work to make it nice. After 4 years of renovating ours we can’t face that. There was also only a tiny overgrown garden to the front which overlooked a busy road and the double doors in the kitchen opened on to a communal lane at the back (with an aggressive dog a few doors up). Too much of a compromise for me and although my partner liked it he wasn’t keen on the back of the house so we’ll keep looking!

We've just put our house on the market, OP. 350 years old and lots of gorgeous features. We're just outside Skipton (which is another great area to look at). Several great high schools nearby. We're about 20 minutes from Ilkley to give you an idea of area. Right on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales.

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/152856023

That is beautiful like Escape to the Country

Hi everyone. Firstly, thank you for all your help! MN wins again!

We’ve spent the last few weeks viewing houses in Ilkley, Otley, Addingham, Burley-in-Wharfedale and also Malpas in cheshire.
We tried to book viewings in Holmfirth as well but the owners either wanted cash buyers or had offers on the table, still had their properties listed but didn’t want to do viewings.

Anyway, we’ve been to see a house in Cheshire which is lovely. All renovated and ready to move in. Big garden, a couple of streets from a top-rated secondary and the local outstanding primaries have space for the kids. Local village with not too much going on but a town 10 minutes drive away and 30 minutes to Chester. It’s also £50k under budget.

The compromises would be that the view at the front is other houses (we currently have an uninterrupted 2 mile view of countryside so this is new to us), the bedrooms are slightly odd shapes so it will take some thinking to decide where wardrobes and other furniture would fit (we may have to get rid of out king size bed!). One bedroom is slightly small, would only really fit a single bed (which child gets that one??). However the hallways and landings are really spacious so we’re wondering if we can build storage there. It’s also a semi rather than detached and we’d kind of hoped for detached this time (first world problem I know!).

Is it weird to have clothes storage built on to the landing?

Do these seem reasonable compromises for the outstanding schools? I think we may been spoilt with what we already have.

It sounds great, and you were likely “spoilt” by your current place. There aren’t many houses that come with uninterrupted views of countryside! And your current place isn’t right for you anyway as you are needing to move from it. You’ll have to flex on some things to get others.

I can’t see the problem in one child having a single bed - feels like the norm for a child.
Built in storage / wardrobes would probably help with weird room sizes/shapes, and you could have overflow wardrobes on the landing for out of season clothes or things you don’t need as often. If you made them blend in, it’d look fine.

Each child has a turn in the small bedroom, say every two years.