How do you relocate?

mouthscradle

My husband and I are hoping to relocate back up north, 250 miles away, to be closer to family. We've started looking at possible employers in the area. But how do you do it when you're a home owner? It seems like a logistical nightmare and i don't know how people do it.

We own our house which is mortgages, in a fixed term so an early repayment charge would be payable. Wanting to avoid this, but it is portable. So ideally we would like to buy and port rather than go into rented.

Which is where the problem lies... How do you time it so that you both get a new job at the same time, and so it coincides with moving? Usually, when you get a new job, starting it after a month or so seems to be the norm. Highly unlikely a chain would complete that quick!

Do people usually do it the other way round and find a house before securing a job offer? Though I dare say a mortgage in a new city would need to be based on your income in that city, not your income 250 miles away.

My head hurts

PasturesNew

What you do is rent a studio flatlet, cheap ... sell your house, put most stuff into storage, move into a rented flatlet.... then do all the looking and finding out the local gossip about places/areas etc.

Trying to do it from a distance would be nuts. A studio minimises your costs and focusses your mind.

I've moved a few times - I usually book a random hotel, then look for a studio/house share/whatever from there.

Flugelhorn

Agree with pasturesnew - really have to have some way of living in the new area as soon as you need to take up the job and definitely can't rely on selling and buying a house in that time.
Also possible that you mortgage company would not be keen on you moving to an area with no job so the job comes first - have just checked online Halifax allow up to 3 months between mortgages for them to be exempt from the early repayment charge, expect others have similar.

mouthscradle

That's interesting about the 3 month gap. We're with First Direct, I'll check out their T&Cs.

Luckily my husband grew up in the city and I lived there for 12 years so we already know the areas.

If push came to shove we could stay with his parents for a few weeks with stuff in storage, but we have kids so it would be cramped to say the least!

saajan_12

My suggestion would be as follows:
1. Weekend trips back up to make sure you do know which areas you would be looking to buy based on current situation, not x years ago. Scope out the property market and keep up with new listings so you can make a decision and put in an offer as soon as your current place is moving.

2. Get job sorted - you might alter area based on commute times and you don't know if this is a given.

3. Move up (in rented/with family) and clear current property of personal posessions (may leave big things / furniture to help buyers get an idea and you'll need storage anyway, but make it look pristine)

4. Get current property on the market and put in offer in new city

5. Sell current property when ready.

6. Buy new property once current property sold and searches/surveys etc satisfactory on new place.

You don't need to tie the transactions in a chain as you won't be living in the current property. As other posters have mentioned, many lenders will permit a 3 month gap between completions to port the mortgage, but this isn't long in house buying world, especially if your purchase falls through and you have to start searching again. So, I would get your purchase underway before the sale completes to be comfortably within 3 months.

ChasingtheWelshdream

Hello,

We have just relocated a similar distance. Different circumstances as we were becoming mortgage free, but we couldn't afford to rent here whilst paying for the mortgage back home.

However, we did obsessive amounts of research beforehand, then blitzed house viewings over a weekend.

Then had a job interview.

Came up a couple more times, then moved in. It was a logistical nightmare, but worked in the end.

We would have liked a small mortgage to move into the next level of housing. But our company (Halifax) wouldn't allow it without proof of permanent employment. As my job was fixed term initially, it wouldn't count (even though we could easily afford the payments through self-employed income, a no-go).

The only way round it would have been to stay in our old jobs, rent in our home town, (with proven tenancy), and job hunt from there.

We opted to forgo the larger garden and live mortgage free.

In terms of jobs, I don't think you could realistically expect everything to tie up nicely. My position waited an extra 2 months, but I doubt most would.

We have no regrets about the move, and love the house. However, if we did it again we would look at renting/storage or lots of holidays to get a better feel for the area. It just seemed a waste of money at the time, but now we're here, we've realised we prefer the next town along. That's our aim for when the kids leave school! :rotfl:

Good luck with whatever you do. Research, research, research. Don't rush, don't let logistics put you off and follow your dream! :beer:

mouthscradle

Thank you all Helpful advice as always.

We are quite sure about areas as (on top of us both having lived there previously) we have a lot of family dotted around the city and we visit for long weekends and weeks several times a year. We have drawn a shortlist of areas but are staying flexible and they are spread out, so we can narrow down further once locations of jobs becomes clearer.

Have signed up with all of the agents in the city, and some Rightmove searches with alerts. Also had our current house valued.

Only thing worrying me now is securing a port of our current mortgage and additional borrowing when jobs will be new, and potentially in probationary periods. About to ask about that on the mortgages board now

mouthscradle

Another question has just occurred to me...

When buying and selling in different cities, would you recommend using a solicitor where we are now, or one in the new city? Assuming we use the same one for both, which I would prefer to do.

Grampus8

I've done this, from N. Scotland to S. England.

Sold house, paid six months up front for rental property, quit job, moved. Then looked for new jobs and new house!

ChasingtheWelshdream

mouthscradle wrote: »

Another question has just occurred to me...

When buying and selling in different cities, would you recommend using a solicitor where we are now, or one in the new city? Assuming we use the same one for both, which I would prefer to do.

We used an online conveyancing company. They were fine, but when a 'local' issue arose, they had a hissy fit as they had never come across it before and advised us to withdraw from the purchase. Similarly, our agent selling our house advised us the house was unsellable.

Cue a mad dash up here to see for ourself, and we discovered that it was quite common for properties here, and they should have been easily able to sort it.

On that note, I would use a local solicitor now.

ALPedro

wow.. i think you have a lot of moving pieces. I've moved before and my recommendation is always secure the most important part first, and then slowly work on the rest, i.e. break the problem down to manageable, digestible chunks.

find the job, secure the income, and then slowly look for a place to live.