Selecting commuter town to move to

[SpuriousCorrelation]

Hi all, looking for an advice to how to select my next place to live. We currently live in zone 2, a family of 3, and don't really want to exceed 850k in budget. Out biggest motivation is good school, as I don't want to move again when my son reaches secondary school stage. We're more inclined to grammar schools, rather than private, but are happy to have a good private as a backup plan if the child fails to get into grammar. Both me and my wife work Central London, and more than an hour commute looks a bit tough to us. This way, we shortlisted to several places I'm currently looking at:

1. Chelmsford - extremely good grammar school, slightly lower prices, good commute. A bit dodgy area in north west though, and the closest good private in Brentwood

1. Reading - 2 good grammars, also slightly lower prices. All the houses on zoopla look very old and problematic though.

1. Sevenoaks - is very popular among our friends an colleagues, but I don't understand the school situation there, as Tonbridge grammars are out of catchment, and privates are second in price only to Eton. Also feel myself very poor when checking house prices there.

1. Tonbridge - 3 good grammars, but no backup private plan. Commute start to become quite long at this point.

1. Orpington - 2 good grammars, again no private. Also pushes to the limit in terms of prices.

1. Sutton - 5 good grammar schools, and not that expensive. The area seems very dodgy though, doesn't give the same feeling of a small town to me.

1. High Wycombe - 2 good grammar schools, but the area seems dodgy to me.

1. St Albans - super popular, but again I don't understand why. Also quite tough on prices for my budget it seems.

Chelmsford seems like the sweetest spot, but I can't get rid of a suspicion I am missing smth big which drives house prices down there. I understand my criteria could very much differ from the general public, but what is the main driver of Sevenoaks being so much more expensive than Chelmsford? Also, could it be there are some awesome places I've missed?

And the last question - are there some kind of consultants that take fee for helping in such a selection. As it is a very big and important decision, I really consider I could pay some money for a second opinion.

Having lived in all 3 places I would rank them as follows so far as schools are concerned:

1st Sutton. Lots of options both in the borough and in Kingston and Epsom depending on where you are in the borough. One of our neighbour's sons went to Dulwich College from there - easy by train.

2nd Tonbridge. Kent is heavily into grammar schools and again lots of options.

3rd Reading. The two boys' grammars are very, very selective and there's not a lot of alternatives if you can't get into one unless you are going to spend serious money on somewhere like Pangbourne. The position for girls is, I believe, somewhat easier.

I live in Chelmsford. It is cheaper than places like sevenoaks Sutton and St Albans because it is further out! Lots of ex londoners live in Old moulsham and you would get something nice for your budget. Someone else mentioned Channels area which is also good but much further out. The in catchment area for Chelmsford grammers is 12.5 miles so you could also live in Shenfield and be in catchment. Though the grammers are super selective

I wouldn't live in Reading if you paid me. It's grim and a real pain to drive round. You'd also be fighting everyone else for the houses in the 'good' areas.

You'd be better off looking at Wokingham or Ascot/Winkfield. Bracknell is okay lots of green spaces, things to do (and you can get on the M4 and M3 within minutes, train to London takes about an hour) so is Crowthorne. There's a school bus that goes to the Grammar school in Reading. You also have Wellington College if you can't get into the Grammar schools in Reading.

The towns on the other side of Reading I don't know at all.

I would look for someone on the Elizabeth line to get to those stations. Taplow, Turnham, Twyford would work and Burnham has a grammar school.

High wycombe is quite big and apart from the central area there are nice areas too. Considering the grammar schools, Amersham hill, Daws Hill and Booker will be good options, they offer quite nice properties and neighbours.