City-dwellers looking to move to the country - advice/experiences?

borkid

Bossypants wrote: »

Just answering a few of the specific questions:

- They do currently drive, although a decent bus route would be a plus.

- Currently have a 3-bed house with a small garden in Hove. Bearing in mind that they both work from home and spend a large amount of leisure time there 'pottering around', I think the type of property they're looking for would be a good fit size-wise (I'm a single person working partly from home in a 2-bed house with courtyard garden, and while it's not too small, it's definitely not too big either).

IT connections is a good one, very important, will point that one out especially!

Thanks again, really appreciate the replies!

A miracle I would say.

Bossypants

borkid wrote: »

A miracle I would say.

Well, yes and no. Around here the network is pretty decent, there's a bus that runs between Brighton and Horsham every half hour Monday to Friday, ducking through a number of villages on the way.

Bear in mind that our 'countryside' down here is pretty gentrified at this point.

JoJo1978

Totally agree on the size, we only looked at 4 bed min - we both WFH and want hobby and guest rooms.

Consider style of property too, does it matter? We found a lot of smart detached 4+ beds on newer build estates. But they lacked character and houses were on top of each other. We're currently overlooked from all angles so after seeing loads of newer builds we decided against them.

So we've ended up much closer into the town but on a Victorian Street in a conservation area. Best part is house is only 10 years old, was built on the site of the coach house of the big house on the corner. Gets mistaken for period, but has all mod cons, including superfast BB and a cat5 network system (previous owners WFH too.)

Prepare for odd layouts and configurations in true countryside cottages that have been knocked through or extended to be marketed as larger houses.

getmore4less

Budget.

Depending where, if moving expensive to cheap there can be a tendency to go on the highside because stuff looks cheap.

Seems like they should focus on a few specific things like at least 2 study/work spaces, even consider a garden office to make a very clear there is a work life balance.
etc.


presumably they have already done a drivetime map to narrow their search.

They'd like to be within 45 minutes of both Brighton and Horsham)

google maps has them 42 mins apart so the intersect area will not be that big.

there are tools out there to do it but just dragging on google maps will get a good idea.

I used a tool
https://app.traveltimeplatform.com/#

with a few bit that got further you are in this area.

Brighton-Uckfield to the east then up to Crawly

Brighton along the coast to Littlehampton

joining up on the west Pulburough and Billingshurst are outside the range


10mile from Blackstone will capture over 1/2 the area on rightmove,
beds and price should narrow the availability as a start.

getmore4less

some of the bigger more established towns will have houses on the outskirts that are on big plots not "country" but maybe isolated enough.

At a price.
how much do they have £1/2m won't find much when your basic 4bed estate houses are at that level.

ProDave

If "peace and quiet" is one of the main objectives, then once they fond a house, go and visit it (just sit outside in your car) at 8AM and 5PM. You might find that quiet country road you saw at a weekend is a busy rat run in the rush hour.

I know one couple who lived in a cul de sac in town and never even thought about passing traffic when moving to the country, then got one hell of a shock at 8AM the first Monday they were there.

Soundgirlrocks

My parents made the move from London to very rural Lincolnshire 15 years ago.

Check out local businesses, and wind direction - where my parents live there is a meat rendering factory about 20miles away, houses in the next village over (about 6 miles closer to the factory) have a bit of an issue with the smell!

In a village get involved with the community and try and get on with everyone. Carry cash (you will be surprised how many places still don't take cards!) Have a plan for emergencies, power cuts, being snowed in etc. Have a well stocked larder if you can't get out for a bit.

Accept you will always be an outsider & the countryside can be noisy too.

DaftyDuck

I could have sworn I posted shortly after the OP.... Must have got lost in the sticks.

Rent before committing to buying. It's not exactly rural round there, and nothing is far from anything, but it may be more of a change than they are expecting. Things are slower in the countryside.

Remember, countryside changes more than city throughout a year. Green and pleasant lanes and verges in summer turn into the Somme by now, with angry tractor drivers mincing hedges and throwing sharp debris at tyres; the bucolic birdsong-harmonied wooded glade becomes battle ground for cheap two-stroke chainsaw wars and, as for snow and ice.... in some areas half an inch causes mass panic as schools, bin collection, buses, post just take a three-week [STRIKE]holiday[/STRIKE] safety break....

Broadband. Check carefully. Some of the countryside still relies on tin cans and string. The Openreach predictor for broadband improvements was written by J K Rowling, it's that fictitious! Some areas have really excellent broadband.... because almost nobody is connected to that pole/cabinet. Then, four new houses pop up, then a new estate, contention ratios become... Contentious!

Power outages. Probably not too bad down there, but isolated places can see power drop for a day on a regular basis.

Bus services come and go. GP surgery and dentist can go from good to failing in a flash. They are always closed anyway, so no matter. The village shop, the pub... now, they MATTER! Check them out. Particularly the pub. Oh, bossyp, point out how valuable a second opinion would be. Several visits.

Some people (one around here in particular ) seem destined to upset the locals, cos they are Doing It Wrong... No, they do it their way... Fit in, enjoy. I don't agree you'll always be an outsider, especially if you relax and join in.

Oh, remember that, down there, development can happen like lightning. That field behind may be earmarked for development for thirty houses. Next month, there'll be seven hundred, two supermarkets and a bypass!

When narrowed down, find the village magazine, the village notice board, local pcso and crime maps, regular postie and Millie (as if) and grill for info.what goes on, what shouldn't go on, hat might ghoon three years hence.

Oh, and as others have said, don't complain about the cockerels... or donkeys, goats, sheep, whatever.....Better than that, keep some of the above. No faster way into the local community than keeping livestock. There's not an old boy about who can't help but tell you how to do it better and, equally, can't wait to help.

AnotherJoe

Friends of mine did this and love it.

1) they have really thrown themselves into village life - local pub teams, BBQ's with neighbors, any social activity going from barn dances to beating for shoots to volunteering in the village shop.
2) Their village is only just about the size that allows it to maintain a pub and a shop (and the latter is volunteer run). Any smaller and both would be gone, so dont go for too small.
3) Their broadband is dire, possibly its being upgraded soon.
4) They do have some livestock though personally i think that ties them down too much, but whatever.

So I'd say the main lessons from their successful transition are, not too small, get stuck in to local life even if you wouldn't normally in a larger town.

bijouinnuendo

We moved to West Norfolk from Berks in February. It's definitely not quiet but the noises are very different. The bird scarers go off in sets of three from 8 in the morning. Harvest was an 'interesting' time. Surrounded by sugar beet fields. Dog walkers start very early parking in the car park and walking by the river/relief channel next door. The clock chimes on the quarter at the village church and bell ringing on a Sunday morning and practice on a Thursday afternoon. Stags and owls bark and hoot all through the night. These noises were all expected by us and very much make up the totality of living in the countryside. We Love it!
We do have a village shop/post office,doctors surgery, 2 pubs and a once an hour railway directly to London in about 1 3/4 hours all within a mile but when we drive up to the house it feels as if we're in the middle of nowhere. We also have very fast broadband so I know we are lucky.

Best move we ever made but you do have to do your homework.