Relocating!

Saxqueen2000

Hello,
Anyone have any advice on how to relocate? I currently live in Somerset with my husband and 2 children. We’d love to live closer to his parents in York. We’ve looked at areas we can afford houses and would like to live, had a visit to those areas to check them out.
We just don’t know how to actually start the process! My husband is a driver and there seems to be plenty of jobs available around that area. I’m a self employed musician and music teacher and have kept my eye on suitable roles I could do. 

What’s the first step? Put our house on the market? Find jobs? I don’t know how we would get the ball rolling. Ideally we’d like to move straight in to a house we are purchasing rather then rent in-between. We could potentially move in with hubby’s parents for a short time if needed, but it’s about 30-40 minutes from our ideal area so may be an issue for commuting for jobs.
It all feels too overwhelming but I don’t want to let that put me off doing this! 

pinkteapot

We were in your exact position two years ago. For a few years we’d wanted to relocate from Essex to Cumbria but just couldn’t work out how to do it.

In the end, Mr Teapot’s job turning really nasty made us go “sod it!”. We handed in our notices at work, sold our house, rented a house up here, and just came. We planned to job-hunt when we arrived but happened to each see good jobs advertised before we moved. I got mine with a Skype interview and hubby got his with an interview just after moving. 

We made the decision to DO IT in September 2018 and arrived in December 2018. 

We settled into new jobs, then started house-hunting. We moved out into our own place in November 2019. 

My thoughts now:

Give more thought to renting first, unless you’ve lived in the area before. You don’t know what places are like till you live there. Also, if you need to find jobs, you don’t know where work will end up being. When we went on to buy a place we chose a village halfway between our jobs as I’d had a long commute from our rental. After living here for a bit, chatting to locals, seeing what roads were like, etc, we ruled out several places that we’d previously thought we might buy a place in! 

The job thing is so hard. We were a five-hour drive away so not really practical for job-hunting. We were lucky in that we had a good chunk of equity in our house down south so by selling up and renting we had plenty of money in the bank and no pressure to find work fast - it was just lucky that we did. I think the more relaxed way to do it would be for one of you to have a job lined up, but if you’ve got some money behind you don’t let the prospect of just taking the leap put you off! 

On a practical note, renting without having a job lined up is a nightmare - we had enough cash in the bank to pay the rent for 20 years but the letting agents’ financial check process still required an income. They fudged our application through by using my old Essex income as I was still working my notice when we applied for the rental! Which shows how meaningless the process is as they knew I was leaving that job. 

If you’ve got family and friends close by now, don’t underestimate how hard it is to leave them. FaceTime makes it a lot easier than it was 20 years ago but it’s still not the same so be prepared to travel back down a few times a year. 

My advice to anyone in the same boat is to give it a go though. Our view was very much that we’d wanted to do this for a long time and we’d regret it if we didn’t try it. If we didn’t like it up here or didn’t find work then we’d just move back. We’d have spent some money on the experience, sure, but we’d have regretted it in the future if we didn’t give it a shot. 

getmore4less

In practice you end up doing everything in parallel.
Schools can be the driver if the kids are of that age.
One thing to start is the declutter.
The finances can also determine options.
Can you do the move on one salary.
if you have sold could one of you still work in your current area while the rest relocate
The big distance needs accommodation as commute not practical
The other way is probably easier as you have family to stay with if one of you got a job before you sold.

Claire2989

We’re currently relocating. South Devon to West Yorkshire so a similar distance. We both previously lived in Yorkshire so knew we wanted to go back. Although we did take a while to decide properly! We started with jobs. I got mine sorted and my partner eventually decided on a career change so is going back to uni. 

Then we found a house to buy (so tough in the area we’re looking, everything goes quickly and over asking - even now!). Finding a house was so difficult. Long drives to do viewings and never the first to get in so often viewings were cancelled as we always needed to book in far in advance. We don’t have a property to sell as we have only lived in south Devon for 2 years so rented. If the sale falls through we will either put our stuff in storage and rent an air bnb or get a 6 month rental. 

We’ve just found a good local removals who have given us a decent quote ( I would advise lots of shopping around here!) Our house is due to complete at the end of July and this is when we aim to move. But if you can rent for a short time or move in with family I think it will make it easier for you overall. It’s been such a blessing to be bottom of chain and able to keep our rental past completion date so we can get the keys sorted and then move our stuff. With such long distances one some glitch can cause everything to tumble down!

Also if you don’t know the new area very well renting will give you chance to explore it more. There may be another area you haven’t considered but would love for example. It will also help on the viewings front. I so wish we’d have been closer it would have made everything much easier and less stressful! 

We don’t have children so I can’t really help on that front. Just a dog that is getting to go ‘on his holidays’ with the dog sitter while we sort everything then he’ll be picked up and taken straight to the new house :-).

davidmcn

I would start by checking the mortgage situation, in particular what income lenders will deem you to have immediately after your move. You can't use income from a job you'll need to leave at the old place, or from the hope of finding a new one after you move, so renting in between might be a sensible option.

Scotbot

I have relocated several times due to work. It always started with finding the job first, then renting in the new area.  Finances tend to drive the decision, can you afford to rent a property in York before your Somerset house is sold? Do you need a mortgage  for the York house? In which case you presumably need a job first to prove income, remember the lender will become aware that you are relocating. Even renting you will need proof of income.
The most likely scenario is selling your Somerset house  then getting a new job then buying a new property. Renting is almosr certainly inevitable unless you really like your relatives.

Unicorn_cottage

@Saxqueen2000 As someone said I would get stuck into decluttering and deciding what big stuff (white goods) etc you want to take with you. We are in a similarish position (Bristol to Northumberland) and are currently being absolutely ruthless. We have decided to move ourselves as hiring a removals company is astronomical in our opinion. 

A big factor for you will be schools and the process for getting them a place.

I would right a list of stuff that you need to do down and then work through them 1 by 1 so you are not overwhelmed. Have you done things like get your house valued? Found out what fees estate agents are charging etc?

Best of luck. Would love to hear how you get on.

Claire2989

One thing I forgot to mention is check if your new company offers any kind of relocation package. Mine offered up to £8k which can go on conveyancing fees, SDLT, removals, renting fees, EA selling fees etc. Which may influence some of your choices. 

amandacat

We are relocating. We have decided to sell and rent initially. We really didn’t want to rent but the pros outweigh the cons. We need to ensure our new house will be near where my husband gets a job and it will be difficult for him to get a job before we move as we don’t know how long our house will take to sell. We also don’t want to buy in an area that we end up not liking. Travelling nearly 400 miles for house viewings isn’t practical. By renting first we can look for a new house to buy without settling for something less than perfect. 
I am lucky that I will get a transfer with my job. 
We haven't put our house on the market yet though because we fear my husband won’t find a job in the current climate so we are waiting until there is a good chance he will get a job. We could try and sell now and live off my wages but it’d be tight and I don’t want to eat into the equity we will have from selling our house. 

Drawingaline

We relocated back in 2007. Sold just before the crash. We moved with a large chunk of equity in the bank and actually rented for 18months. Bought in 2009 when prices were low, struck lucky and bought a house for 10k less than we sold a flat for. Ok the flat was in Brighton, but even so! 

We moved without jobs, we couldn't afford the housing jump in Brighton and I wanted to be closer to family with having two small children. So we did it. I got a part time job quickly, husband took his time but had a job within 6months. We had paid six months rent up front so knew we had that time. 

I don't remember a massive amount of planning, the biggest worry was having to give notice in our jobs before exchange as we couldn't negotiate a longer gap between exchange and completion. We had two weeks, but had to work a month's notice. If the sale had fallen through and we were stuck in Brighton without jobs but with a mortgage to still pay, that would have been hard!