Tips for moving long distance

Hermoine

I moved from London to the West Country - to a town I'd never been to before. I did a lot of research online beforehand to check that the town I thought I wanted to move to met all my criteria. That included random google searches, but also looking at town council websites (very good for things like clubs and societies), and also relevant train websites as I knew I'd need to work elsewhere. I found it took me a couple of visits to get my eye in - by which I mean working out what the different areas were like, how they connected with other areas and so on. It really helped to be able to walk around as well as drive - when you drive its much more difficult to get a sense of an area.Once I'd got to that point it was much easier to home in on particular properties when they came up for sale, or to discard others. One of the good things about staying over is that you can see what the place is like at different times of day/night. Is it rough and scary on a Saturday night, or like a ghost town on a Sunday morning?? And I'd also agree that househunting in the winter is best - if you like somewhere then you'll love it in the summer! I put in an offer on my house in November and haven't regretted it at all!

Mattygroves2

Another vote for renting if possible. We moved from Hertfordshire to Cheshire with no prior knowledge of the area and rented for 9 months whilst we found the area and house we liked. You just can't get a real feel for the issues from a few weekends particularly how long it really takes to get to places at the time you'd be travelling. It puts you in a better position to buy as well as you'll be chain free.

Blue264

We moved 240 miles from home at 2 weeks notice in November.

OH had a job interview, and was offered the job when he got home that evening. His old employer allowed him to finish without working his notice, so the start date became 2 weeks after accepting the job offer.

I spent a hectic weekend on Rightmove looking at places to rent within 10miles of the new location, and narrowed it down by Googling forums posts about the area. Got surprisingly good info on the area from https://www.pistonheads.com of all places!!!

We drove down for 2 days, without any appointments booked, and just trawled around the estate agents. Viewed 7 places and chose where we live now. We've got a 12mth lease that can be ended after 6mths, and I'm really glad we did it this way. As other people have said in this thread, our area was badly affected by the storm and floods.

I drove down through the night on 21st December with the last of our stuff, woke up to a power cut that lasted 3 days and the town flooded. I unpacked by candlelight and had to drive 30miles just to charge my phone. Thank god for the Wetherspoons 8miles up the road that still had power, and missed being flooded by a matter of feet!

Now we're settled, and have seen this place at it's worst, we're getting a good feel for where we would like to buy a house, and have the time to come to a good decision. But I'm insisting on somewhere with a log burning stove!

Good luck with your move :beer:

cynicalgit_2

Try Google Earth, and never move to anywhere called "Lower" anything.

LandyAndy

Mattygroves2 wrote: »

Another vote for renting if possible. We moved from Hertfordshire to Cheshire with no prior knowledge of the area and rented for 9 months whilst we found the area and house we liked. You just can't get a real feel for the issues from a few weekends particularly how long it really takes to get to places at the time you'd be travelling. It puts you in a better position to buy as well as you'll be chain free.

I agree with this. We moved from Cheshire to Hampshire in 2005 and rented for 10 months. We finished up buying on the same street but could easily have bought in 'worse' areas if we'd relied on a few short visits.

Davesnave

cynicalgit wrote: »

never move to anywhere called "Lower" anything.

Oh dear, I lived in a 'Lower' for most of my adult life! :eek:

We fooled everyone though, by borrowing the name of the area just next door on the two occasions when we sold.

It was a 'Park.'