House hunting tips and credit documents

Hello, we'll be moving to Sheffield in the summer for my wife to start her PhD work.  We're going over in March to look for housing.  Any tips on what to watch out for?  

Also, since we are in the US now and have no UK presence what sort of documentation should we take along to secure a lease?  We were planning on openning a UK bank account and having funds wired from our US account so that we could write a check for the deposit in GBP.  

I talked to someone at the Royal Bank of Scotland and they said so long has you have ID (Passport) and proof of residence (even outside the UK) they will open a current account.  My father openned a current account over a summer vacation with them so I know it is possible, but I have read some conflicting reports on banks willingness to open accounts for non-UK residents.  

I know that many people have had luck with HBSC in the past.  Not sure about Scotland though...

Nationwide have been very good to me and I wouldnt, personally, be with anyone else. We've had loans, current accounts, saving accounts, mortgages, and ISAs with them.