Where to find quirky cottage to rent?

Doooford

I'm almost losing the will to live with searching the net, just getting the same agencies offering the same properties. Anyway, I'm trying to work out how to by pass the big agencies and find privately let, or agency, cottagey type of properties for rent in the south west.
To cut a long story short, 8 months a go we moved into a house in Bristol for a long term let, unfortunately though the Landlord is having to come back from Australia to look after his terminally ill brother (they only found out last week). So we have been given two months notice to move, oh and we had a baby 6 weeks ago, so we don't have a lot of time to look for places. So to get over the disappointment of having to move, we are looking for a 2+ bedroom cottage within 30 minutes drive of Bristol, a proper home with character and possibly rickety stairs and nooks and crannies. Somewhere nice for our son to grow up. The problem is, that I can't work out how to find anything apart from newly refurbished or renovated town houses! Any help would be appreciated, I'm guessing the local papers would be the best way to go, but then I also assume that means driving to each little village to pick them up, and I really wish I had time to do that, but I have to admit that it would be a push!
We really want ths to be a move to our perfect home, as this was, until it went a bit pear shaped. We were thinking of private letting so that at least we could get to know the landlord and let them know our plans, which are basically to stay in the same place for years. As with letting agencies, I think it's fair to say that they bend the truth slightly to get your money.
I really will apprecaite any help, and any successful leads that end up with us getting the right home will receive a reward of a case of wine/beer, or I'll even take you for a couple of drinks! We really are that desperate for help!
Our upper budget is £700 ideally (which can be flexed slightly), and could do without fees due to all of our money is going on baby equipment, and he has already grown enough to need a cot.
Many thanks in advance :beer:

Thrugelmir

Doooford wrote: »

I'm almost losing the will to live with searching the net, just getting the same agencies offering the same properties. Anyway, I'm trying to work out how to by pass the big agencies and find privately let, or agency, cottagey type of properties for rent in the south west.
To cut a long story short, 8 months a go we moved into a house in Bristol for a long term let, unfortunately though the Landlord is having to come back from Australia to look after his terminally ill brother (they only found out last week). So we have been given two months notice to move, oh and we had a baby 6 weeks ago, so we don't have a lot of time to look for places. So to get over the disappointment of having to move, we are looking for a 2+ bedroom cottage within 30 minutes drive of Bristol, a proper home with character and possibly rickety stairs and nooks and crannies. Somewhere nice for our son to grow up. The problem is, that I can't work out how to find anything apart from newly refurbished or renovated town houses! Any help would be appreciated, I'm guessing the local papers would be the best way to go, but then I also assume that means driving to each little village to pick them up, and I really wish I had time to do that, but I have to admit that it would be a push!
We really want ths to be a move to our perfect home, as this was, until it went a bit pear shaped. We were thinking of private letting so that at least we could get to know the landlord and let them know our plans, which are basically to stay in the same place for years. As with letting agencies, I think it's fair to say that they bend the truth slightly to get your money.
I really will apprecaite any help, and any successful leads that end up with us getting the right home will receive a reward of a case of wine/beer, or I'll even take you for a couple of drinks! We really are that desperate for help!
Our upper budget is £700 ideally (which can be flexed slightly), and could do without fees due to all of our money is going on baby equipment, and he has already grown enough to need a cot.
Many thanks in advance :beer:

The dream home you aspire to isn't an average rental property. More likely any property of this type would be privately owned. Or be a premium rent at best as highly desirable to some.

As your baby is only 6 weeks old and growing. Where they live isn't going to make any difference to them at such a young age.

Take off your RTG's and look for somewhere practical. Even try and start to save for somewhere of your own in the longer term.

noxon

In a not dissimilar situation though a slightly different location, friends of mine drafted an ad and put it on the local gumtree and other free property pages. It worked for them as in they found a pretty cottage in a lovely village but living in a rickety old house in very small village without much public transport isn't without its drawbacks when pregnant or with a small child and when you're not the one in charge of maintenance but you're the one paying the heating bills...

edit:
in case it wasn't clear, the ad on gumtree was a "property sought" description asking landlords to get in touch if they had something suitable

Gingernutmeg

We've recently been looking for somewhere to move to in a similar area and I've noticed that if you use rightmove and findaproperty and increase the radius of your search (ie 10/20 miles from your town) then it starts to bring up the more rural properties. However, you're really, really unlikley to find a 'nice' cottage for £700 pcm, because decent properties like this tend to come with a real premium. The ones that are cheap are the kinds of places where you wouldn't want to live, especially not with a small child.

Equally, what's the point of renting somewhere that's your 'dream' home? It isn't and never will be yours, and you're just setting yourself up for sadness when you inevitably have to move again. Better to look for somewhere practical that's suitable and within your budget, and then start saving properly for your dream country cottage. Sure, it'd be nice for your son to grow up in a charming cottage but in a rental, realistically you're not going to be able to stay anywhere for long enough for someone to spend their childhood there ...

It sounds harsh but I really think you're making it so much harder for yourself by thinking of sny rental property as your perfect home. It isn't, it never will be and I don't think you're doing yourself any favours by thinking that it is. Better to be practical and save yourself the stress.

charliee_3

id agree with the others, i know its not helpful but you are setting your sights way too high for a rental.. that sort of thing comes by once in a blue moon and for that price?? i would think that they are not that popular as a LL for a rental property because of the money-pit of constant maintenance and tenants unrealistic expectations of living in an old house (draughty, leaks, high energy bills, etc) tey are more of an owner/occupier thing as they can become a labour of love... your only chance woudl be maybe a shorter tem let when the owners are going abroad or simialr and need someone to 'housesit'...
you have enough on your plate at the moment and your son wont remember anything for at least 2 or 3 years, so dont worry about where he will be 'growing up' just find somewhere comfortable and good enough, practcial and affordable and save up for your dream home for when he is 4 or 5 and will appreciate it...

Mrs_Boo_Boo

I would have thought lots of cottages are holiday lets too. You may get one as a winter let and take it from there. I know my parents have had a bad season this year so you may get someone who wants to let long term.Would depend on the area too.

PasturesNew

Because of the effort/legislation that LLs have to go through to ensure a property is habitable -v- the potential for expensive ongoing maintenance and danger in a rickety old property, it's unlikely in this day and age that such properties really exist on the private marketplace.

You will most likely need to find a private landlord, which will mean you trawling through the internet looking for obscure adverts ... and possibly encounterng a lot of dark/dank and squalid homes, especially as your budget isn't that big in the scheme of things. LLs would be more like to make it shiny/magnolia on the inside and market it at a premium to people with deep pockets.

Try gumtree and google hard.

But, realistically, you're about 10-30 years too late to be able to easily find that sort of property available for rent.

Also, you can't get a guarantee of a long-term rent, just hot air and promises that might work out. Ultimately the LL can simply give you notice.

Example of a gumbtree advert currently advertising one near Bristol: http://bristol.gumtree.com/bristol/40/40337340.html

Rockporkchop

Congratulations on your new DS. Just my opinion but as someone with 9 month olds, I couldn't think of anything worse than bringing them up in a place with rickety stairs or nooks and crannies. I would prefer to have somewhere new with clean lines so they can toddle or crawl around to their heart's content without you having to worry about them hurting themselves or hiding anywhere. Also it takes too long to clean a quirky cottage! And believe me, when you have to carry a massive lump up and down the stairs many times a day you will be cursing those rickety stairs!

I hope you do find somewhere nice soon.

Doooford

Thanks everyone for the positive, and also the not so positive advice! Does anyone know what Thrugelmir meant by "Take off your RTG's"? I put RTG ito google and it came up with a Sunderland Football club forum and a link to Real Traffic Grabber.
As for saving up for our dream home, we are saving, but for the full amount due to being these new fangled hippy types who fear the concept of living in a house that is owned by your bank for 25 years, and if you manage to get through that period, it is unlikely to be worth anywhere near the value of the mortgage. Call me old fashioned, but I'd rather be in a house that I owned outright, or one that I could leave when I fancied (subject to the month or two contractual notice). Mortgages just don't float my boat I'm afraid.
Anyway, to update what we are after, It isn't so much a cottage but just a nice house with period features, 2/3 bedrooms, good size kitchen and dining room, and a garden in a quiet area close to good schools. We have upped the budget to £800, which is what we currently pay for a 3 bedroom house with period features, garden, wood burning stove, a roll top bath and 2nd shower room in a great part of Bristol next to a good school.
Now I know we were lucky to find this place, but it has made us aware that they do exist.
Thanks for the advice Noxon, I will place a gumtree 'wanted' notice.
And just for clarification, we are happy with a temporary 'dream home', not really fussed with owning as we like the freedom! (But I would just like to reiterate that I am a staunch believer in giving landlords as much notice as possible when leaving as I know that tennants rarely appreciate that one month is nowhere near enough time to arrange an uninterupted income) :j

Welshwoofs

I think one of the issues you're going to have is that the pretty period houses within 30 minutes of Bristol tend to be expensive areas...particularly if you look North of Bristol where you then end up in the Cotswolds boundaries and period 2-3 beds are £1,000 plus.

Even on a quick RM search, the real 'character' properties in Bristol cost a fortune e.g.

2 bed = £1,25pm Horton, Bristol

Davesnave

30 minutes from Bristol on a bad night doesn't get you anywhere 'cottagey,' except perhaps the gents' loos on Bedminster Down!