MFW! :) 6 Years left..

Happier_Me

Hi Gweds

We have been in a similar position to you - we wanted to move to a better area and very nearly did just before having kids and then again when DD was one and we were thinking about having baby no 2 (now DS who is 5).

But each time we sold or started to get lots of interest from buyers (our house went on the market three times over the space of around four years) we got cold feet and decided to stay put. And for us this was the right decision. Worrying about money is not something that sits well with me at all and I wouldn't want the stress of having a large mortgage and one income to cover all bills with small children to look after.

Fast forward a few years we did actually sell up and we are now in our forever home. We made the move after DS had arrived and six months before DD started school, but we still didn't overstretch ourselves (we eventually spent around £100k less than we planned on the house).
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Babies are babies and then toddlers for such a short amount of time. If you can spend this precious time without the stress of money worries, I would. You could hold out a little longer and maybe move just before DS starts school or a little later - children are more resilient to change than you think (my DD transitioned really easily from one private nursery to another and then to school and she is now a confident, popular 8 year old).

If your house can sell in this market you shouldn't have any problems selling it in 2/3 years time either.

This is just an opinion from someone that waited in out a little longer:D

Gweds

Hi Happier Me,
Thanks for your reply
My only concern is that the school here isn't known for being very good and I worry what if I can't get him into another one :S he is only one, but he was born 31st August so he'll be going to school when he's only just four so just another 3 years, which we know flies by when you have kids..

We are the same, money worries don't sit well at all with us either. My partner, and I really, are thinking it might be the best offer we get, and come a few years time, what if no one wants to buy it or we sell for 5k less than we might have done.

So hard to know!

Beckyy

My birthday is around the same as your sons and going to school with people very nearly a year older than me didn't make much difference at all, infact I think I did better for it. Might be worth checking out catchment areas for other schools and seeing if there are any houses in them that you really like.

Gweds

That's good to know Beckyy
We've had a look in the areas that we like and nothing grabs us at the moment.. Have you been in a chain before?

SmlSave

Have you any experience on that? How long did it take you to find your dream home, or did you find it before you sold yours?

I'm a legal sec Gweds so I see all sort of house transactions! I think it took us 6 weeks to find our house but we had already prepared ourselves to live with the family for a while, in the end it was 2 months as our seller's had to arrange prospect care to be able to move.

I think if you do decide to go ahead with your interested buyers and are honest about not moving till you find a property to purchase then there's no problem (the estate agents will not be happy though) You can even instruct solicitors and give them the initial paperwork and then tell them to put the file on hold until you find your new house - that way you won't get charged (check with your solicitors as some are as bad as estate agents about wanting their £££)

If you did end up in a long chain then there could be pressure to complete before you're ready but the main thing is to hold fast until you're ready and if the chain collapses then you know you've been honest and its just not the right time for you to move.

We didn't choose this house because it had a good school nearby but we did check it wasn't horrendous. There's no way I'd be willing to move out of the area until DS and D? have left school. DH thankfully is behind me on this.

TBH Gweds if our old neighbors and parking situation hadn't driven us to move we would have stayed put for another year probably. I say probably as I was itching to move just before DS was born but DH said no.