what would you do? (relocating)

[bettybeetroot]

We have just sold our house and (all going well with the sale) plan on relocating to a different part of the country so I can be nearer my family. We plan on moving into rented as the house we were going to buy fell through but we don't know wether to stay where we are and rent or move now to the area we plan on moving to and rent there. My dd (5) will be going into year 1 tomorrow and cried when I told her we might be moving away soon. On one hand I feel it would be good to move there now and get a feel for which area of town to buy in but on the other hand if we do move now I couldn't move my dd out of her new school (iykwim) and unsettle her again. Sorry of this seems trivial but if anyone has any advice i would appreciate it. my brain feels a bit frazzled!

i should say selling house not sold!

If it's an area in which you have family, couldn't you ask for advice about best schools and see which you like best/has available space then rent nearby? No child likes change but at five, I think she should be quite adaptable to one move.

I was in a similar situation. I relocated into rental accommodation at the beginning of the year while our house was on the market. I put our son into the local school here (reception) and started house hunting. Our house sold very quickly and it has taken till now for us to find somewhere to buy (all being well with the survey). As the house we're hoping to buy is quite a distance from ds1's school I will have to move him once we have bought the new house, he goes into Year 1 tomorrow. I hadn't banked on how long it would take us to find something or that I might still end up moving schools once relocated.

For me the relocation has been the toughest and best decision I have made. Children often feel apprehensive about change, my dcs didn't want to leave at first even though we were in a dodgy area where they couldn't play in the garden safely, but they settled into the new place just fine.

I think it mostly depends where your mind is at? I was determined to get away as soon as possible so all the upheaval has been worth it. I would say to make sure the rental you take has flexibility to extend contract if necessary. Also because we had not rented for sometime we didn't have references so agencies put us through extra searches. Several agencies didn't seem to think it was normal to own a house somewhere and rent somewhere else and seemed to think we were on some sort of scam.

We sold our house and went into rental to cut the length of chain. Our sale went ahead so quickly my friends were shocked I was leaving in two weeks, so no time for goodbye party but it was worth it, as now we can get to know the area we are in (West Midlands) and we have plenty of time to find our dream home. We are a renting a pretty semi so we are not desperate to buy the first thing we see.

Do your research about schools now - it shouldn't be too hard to find out the catchment areas of the state primaries that you wish to send your child to. Then, you can concentrate on finding a rental house within the school catchment area. Once you decide on schools, everything else is usually a compromise. I relocated earlier on this year and DS has just started reception after getting waiting list place offers for both the over subscribed schools that we are in catchment for. We're not planning to buy for the next 12 mths but if we do, it'll be in the same area. HTH.

Agree with everyone else, but would also add that you shouldn't underestimate the time at weekends you may spent looking for a new house. If your current area is a fair distance from your proposed destination, you may want to consider the time spent hurtling up and down the country every weekend to look at potential houses. Such a waste!

We sold our house in Essex and rented there before moving to N Yorks. We spent so much time on the A1 and M11 that year, it is engraved on my mind, and I think we would just have been better off moving north into a rental house asap, rather than belting up and down every other weekend.