Moving from south to north

pinkshoes

whofan101 said:

£20k deposit, 4 bedrooms.
does not need to have amazing transport links as we both drive.

If you're not bothered about any particular part of the UK, then put your £140k budget into Rightmove, select 4 bedrooms minimum, pick a random Northern-ish location, a 40 mile radius, and see what comes up! You can then start to look more into each area.

I've lived all over the UK (Durham, Lincoln, Liverpool, Leeds, Devon, Essex, Oxfordshire etc...) and each area has its nice and rough bits, good and bad schools. 

e.g. centre a search around Doncaster:
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/map.html?locationIdentifier=REGION^430&minBedrooms=4&maxPrice=140000&numberOfPropertiesPerPage=499&radius=40.0&propertyTypes=&includeSSTC=false&viewType=MAP&mustHave=&dontShow=&furnishTypes=&viewport=-1.02348,0.294876,53.0899,53.4435&keywords=

There's a 4 bed terrace in Horncastle which is a nice town. There's some nice villages and areas outside of Lincoln.

This will give you a good idea what £140k will get you in different areas and hopefully help you narrow down your search. 

mark_cycling00

I think that moving three children to a miserable ex mining village in Durham will be truly awful.

Here's my "mystery house" which is a little bit different and has some compromises.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141120530#/?channel=RES_BUY

Basically the hebden bridge area is now extremely cool and funky. Your kids will love it. Plus great train connections to Manchester and Leeds. They can have access to a vast metropolitan, sociable life. See music, arts, sports etc. the countryside is beautiful and on your doorstep. Festivals all summer. A million miles away from east Durham. 

The downsides; a little small, you're paying rent on 30% of the property value and it's leasehold. But you could slowly save and buy the remaining 30%.

whofan101

Thank you all for your input, I guess the but we’re struggling with is where to start, is it best to look at house first or jobs/schools

BikingBud

mark_cycling00 said:

I think that moving three children to a miserable ex mining village in Durham will be truly awful.

Here's my "mystery house" which is a little bit different and has some compromises.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/141120530#/?channel=RES_BUY

Basically the hebden bridge area is now extremely cool and funky. Your kids will love it. Plus great train connections to Manchester and Leeds. They can have access to a vast metropolitan, sociable life. See music, arts, sports etc. the countryside is beautiful and on your doorstep. Festivals all summer. A million miles away from east Durham. 

The downsides; a little small, you're paying rent on 30% of the property value and it's leasehold. But you could slowly save and buy the remaining 30%.

Flood risk?

https://www.getthedata.com/flood-map/luddenden-foot

Skiddaw1

whofan101 said:

Thank you all for your input, I guess the but we’re struggling with is where to start, is it best to look at house first or jobs/schools

I'd start with jobs. See what's about and then expand from there.

I definitely suggest 'shortlisting' some areas and taking a few days to properly explore them especially if you're totally unfamilar with the north. It's a big change even (if like us) you're familiar with the area and have connections there but if you do your homework properly you won't regret it. We certainly didn't (we moved from Reading to rural Cumbria and very happy we are too ).

theoretica

I suspect you need to look for jobs first - you will presumably need them to be able to afford the mortgage.  Quite often people moving long distances need to rent for a while near their new job before getting a mortgage and buying or one parent moves first and then brings the rest of the family a little later.

Albermarle

whofan101 said:

Thank you all for your input, I guess the but we’re struggling with is where to start, is it best to look at house first or jobs/schools

I think probably the best place to start is to lower your sights from a 4 bedroom semi, to a 3 bedroom semi, or perhaps  more realistically a terraced house. Then you would have more choice of location, near job, schools etc 

For example I am originally from a post industrial town in the North West, where the large majority of properties are terraced two bedroom + a bathroom ( often where one bedroom has been halved in size to fit the bathroom) and only a back yard rather than a garden. According to Right Move the current asking price for a property like this in good condition is £140K in a town that regularly features in the list of 5% most deprived towns in the UK.