Finding a rural house to buy: tips tricks advice?

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

Following on from my thread here with all the very helpful answers about using Rightmove (:beer: for that):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5799266

I'm back to ask for more general advice now if possible please.

We are looking for a house to buy in a rural location; out of village/remote preferably. A good amount of land would be great, but we are flexible there, so long as it is not too small. A characterful property would be really nice, but if most of our other boxes are ticked then we cold forego that. Location wise, we have always been drawn to Wales, but are also considering Dumfries and Galloway. We are open to other ideas too , but it needs to be somewhere hilly/mountainous, and somewhere where property is as cheap or cheaper than those locations. We have family in Norfolk/Suffolk/Essex, so nothing a ridiculous distance away (as wonderful as the highlands would be!).

We've started with Rightmove, drawing maps in Wales which divide the country into four and circumnavigate the built up areas. Next we'll do the same with Dum+Gall, and then repeat the whole process with Zoopla and Prime Location. Things will be easier after those mass trawls as we can just look at new to market every few days.

I'm guessing that our position is not particularly unique and so thought I would post to see if anyone has advise as to whether we are going about it in a good way and/or what else can be done to find our home. Are there any sites that specialise in these sorts of things? Any forums where we can seek additional advice and tips? Anything else we can do?

Any advice most welcome.

Huge thanks

JennyP

We just moved last week into our farmhouse with 2.5 acres! We just did what you did: endless right move searches, setting up alerts etc. The real hassle was viewings as one or two really gorgeous properties were snapped up before we could jump on the m1 to view them. Relationships with estate agents possibly helped. I knew the estate agents in our desires area quite well from previously looking for buy to lets there. Though in the end we bought from one I didn't know.

I occasionally did google searches for things like "house with barn" which turfed up properties we'd missed on right move somehow. Friends searched too and often came up with ones we'd overlooked. Not sure why, but this happened a lot.

Good luck.

ProDave

For D&G remember properties of the solicitors property centre very often are not listed anywhere else. So add http://www.dgspc.co.uk/ to your search sources.

This one caught my eye. A lot of house for not a lot of money and looks quite rural. http://www.dgspc.co.uk/The_Old_Schoolhouse_Mennock_Sanquhar_DG4_6HS_27977

Davesnave

Seagull27 wrote: »

Hi all
We are looking for a house to buy in a rural location; out of village/remote preferably. A good amount of land would be great, but we are flexible there, so long as it is not too small.

That's quite a gung-ho approach to land if you don't mind me saying so!

Most people know why they want land and what they want it for, not only because 'a good amount' of it can cost extra, but because costs are ongoing. Maybe you have a definite plan, but this isn't coming across in your post.

Yes, land can be rented out in most places, but if it's pasture for animals, the matter of fencing it and maintaining the quality isn't something to be taken-on lightly.

Cheaper rough amenity land/scrub and woodland may actually suit some people's purposes better, as it needs little maintenance compared with pasture, and there's often useful fuel to be had from it.

To put this in context, we bought mainly pasture. I've surprised myself by almost getting to like sheep, especially when they reach the freezer stage, but given a free hand, I'd avoid the same choice again.

Waterlily24

We found it very difficult to find a rural house on Rightmove, I think Zoopla is slightly better.

When we bought our first semi rural place I kept dismissing it from the houses we looked at. It looked like a 1960's bungalow on an estate. Don't think there could have been streetviews or aerial pics then. We went to the estate agent to see if anything more had come on the market and they gave us the bungalow details again. They said it was semi rural and had no near neighbours, we went to visit and it was ideal so bought it.

At the moment we live just outside a village in countryside and have no very near neighbours, again I think we viewed this one after a visit to the estate agent

glasgowdan

Off topic a little but be careful where you move in G&G... midges can be utter hell! Near bodies of water particularly. I had a camping trip at Loch Doon last summer where the morning midges were like a thick black soup outside the canvass. Packing up and getting in the van took 3 minutes! There were plenty houses down that way, and there's no chance anyone living in them would be able to enjoy being outdoors in those conditions. It sounds daft, but they make a significant difference to quality of life"!

Tunstallstoven

Hi all

Many thanks for the replies, and sorry for my late response. 10 guesses as to what I've been up to

@JennyP. Some good tips there, so I'll bear those in mind. Congrats on moving into your new place. Hope you are enjoying it.

@ProDave. Great! I'll get onto there as soon as RM and Zoopla are finished. Cheers. As for the link, too near a main road unfortunately.

@Davesnave. Will definitely bear all of that in mind, thanks. Our main wishes are to grow veg (a LOT of veg), have fruit trees, etc. But also, we have rescue dogs and as such it is very difficult finding places to let them off the lead. So the idea is to get a decent amount so they can have a good run, play and explore when ever they like. As nature lovers, it would also be nice to set land aside for that as well. So I guess it will depend on that we have as to what we might need to do. I terms of pasture land, I'm not sure what options that would lend to and/or how well it can be adapted for other uses, what that would involve, etc. etc. So definitely plenty to look into.

@Waterlily24. Thanks for sharing your info. Zoopla searches are well under way and am definitely finding stuff on there which was not on RM.

@glasgowdan. Not off topic or daft in the slightest. Years ago we had a midgey experience from hell up further in Scotland. That was NOT funny. So thanks for the reminder. We have had them in Wales as well on hols, but never like in Scotland. Does it tend to get better the further south you go in Wales. Certainly something for us to look in to.

jAXOMSHALOM

Trust me (Welsh native here), you don't want to be living in areas of Wales that has midges. The more remote, peaty upland areas has plenty of them (Brecon Beacons, Cambrians, parts of Snowdonia, etc.). You think you are able to watch the sun rise, or sit outside in a summer's evening but it won't be long until you are surrounded by swarms.You look forward to the colder winter months when they are dormant. A lot of ticks here to boot - I pull off at least three a year and that's even with protection!

Tunstallstoven

Thanks jAXOMSHALOM. Very helpful to know.

So to turn that on its head, what areas of Wales are more midge free? It's definitely something I want to look into and check before seriously considering anything.

Davesnave

Seagull27 wrote: »

Thanks jAXOMSHALOM. Very helpful to know.

So to turn that on its head, what areas of Wales are more midge free? It's definitely something I want to look into and check before seriously considering anything.

Upland areas, as stated, because that's where there's most rainfall and areas of standing water for them to breed.

But it's not as simple as that. Some people are more attractive to biting insects than others, and there are creatures like horse flies which are troublesome too. My wife only has to go out in the back garden to get bitten, whereas I can go fishing, or under trees and have no problems, provided I stick a bit of Deet on first.

One place where I fish, the owner hasn't visited in summer for a couple of years because of the horse fly problem, whereas I'm yet to be bitten there.