Finding a house from the USA

I rented my flat through an agency. I found it in mid-October and moved in November 5th. They actually felt bad that it couldn't be sooner, but the timeline worked for me.

We moved over without jobs so had to find jobs before a rental house, had to stay with family for 2 months whilst we both got jobs/car and found a place we liked.  I was surprised too at seeing "no children" in your everyday 3 bed semi, I couldnt understand many people with out children wanting to rent a 3 bed semi.  Its alot of extra space to pay for.   I used rightmove and primelocation to check what was available, and the agents websites..  I did use an agent but after I signed the lease I was told that everything would go through the landlord, quite strange!  I have been here a year now and still convert things into dollars, grocery bill is the biggy at the moment! I know I shouldnt but cannot help it!

yes, I have found that the estate agents are definitely NOT interested in helping an American move from over here. they either never write back or take ages to do so and then list about 200 requirements, including paying at least 6 mos rent up front 

when i lived in ireland, i went into the estate agent office, picked some houses that i liked from photos, went to look at them and said "i want this one" to the one i liked best, and signed the lease and got the keys the same day!

i guess i expected england to be just as easy, but i was VERY wrong.

how can i find temporary housing? here's the thing... i have an 11 month old son, and it's important to me to keep the disruption to a minimun for his sake. i don;t want to keep moving around. i was hoping to find a place that i liked and just move right in and stay for a long time.

and where can i find rentals by private people? i would rather skip going through an estate agent altogether!

and where can i find rentals by private people? i would rather skip going through an estate agent altogether!

you can try gumtree.com to look for available places.  of course, as you would with any internet site/forum, be careful that the ads you like are legit, and obviously don't supply any personal and financial information online to anyone. 

yes, I have found that the estate agents are definitely NOT interested in helping an American move from over here. they either never write back or take ages to do so and then list about 200 requirements, including paying at least 6 mos rent up front 

Just to warn you, the 6 months up front thing isn't uncommon. I had to use my friend here in the UK as a guarantor or I wouldn't have gotten my flat.

Gumtree.com is a good suggestion for finding private agents. There are tons of people on there.

yes, I have found that the estate agents are definitely NOT interested in helping an American move from over here. they either never write back or take ages to do so and then list about 200 requirements, including paying at least 6 mos rent up front 

I'd imagine the estate agents see it as a risk - since you are not physically in the country yet, they have no guarantee that you'll definitely be getting on that plane, coming over and moving in... which is probably the reason for the high rent demands up front.

when i lived in ireland, i went into the estate agent office, picked some houses that i liked from photos, went to look at them and said "i want this one" to the one i liked best, and signed the lease and got the keys the same day!

I think one of the key points here is that you 'went into the estate agent office'... you were physically present to see the house and were there to move in when possible, so it was easier to find a place and the agents were more helpful.

Having said that though, I don't know of anyone personally who has been able to get the keys the same day - even if they were British (when I was looking for a house when I was a student, I signed the contract in March/April and moved in in September!). Usually it takes a few days/weeks of paperwork and organising between choosing the place and moving in.

when are you moving here --- what month? 
you are looking for a house ultimately? 
we did temp housing until we could get a feel for london neighborhoods we liked.  our company helped us with this.

We are moving in July, and we want a 3 bedroom house (preferably detached). We want aome other specific features, but it looks like we might have to compromise for now. Unfortunately, my future employer is not helping with this at all, so we are on our own. How can temporary housing be located? can i google it?

You should be able to find short term, furnished lets on estate agent websites, rightmove, and gumtree. You could also consider a self catering B&B or something. That really stinks about your employer. I think DaisyGal had a good point about taking a bit of time to check out neighborhoods before committing to something long term, even if it's just a week or so. 

It was really a good move for us; we didn't check out neighborhoods when we relocated previous to the UK, and it just wasn't optimal; we vowed not to do that again.

We are moving out soon; we have a 3 bedroom flat in London.  I don't know if our Landlord would consider a short-term rental, but perhaps.  I'll ask if you'd like.  July might be just in time for them.  She has kids as do we; so they're accepted here.   

How can temporary housing be located? can i google it?

Try Gumtree.com.

maybe part of the problem is that i am moving to hereford, rather than to a large city, like london. hmmmm 

No, I see the issues you're facing in Bath and Bristol too. It's just the rental culture here.

what part of england are you looking at and mabe someone could help in terms of neighbourhoods, etc?
That's really not helpful of your employer I hope the job is better!!!
In personal experience, an 11 month old doesn't notice where he is as long as he has a calm mommy with him! Seriously, I've moved too many times, and we're now moving back to the UK with 4 kids, the youngest is 2. The little ones really don't notice, it's the big ones it's hard on.
I'd check out Loot.com for privat rentals but you do have to be careful, there arenow lots and lots of landlord's legal responsibilities like gas checks and safety stuff, private landlords will try to avoid that which leaves you vulnerable. Then again, they won't need a credit check, I don't know how that works as I always had a credit rating in the UK. But we're staying with friends till we find a house (also a 3 bed). Check out globrix.com and primelocation.com
There's a website that tells you about the neighbourhoods, I don't remember it but there should be a link from one of the others, maybe rightmove.Oh and there's also fish4lettings.co.uk and findaproperty.com (I think), one of them has useful links to neighbourhood info.
good luck with it al. If it helps, ther is a lot of movement in July as the schools finish mid-July in England so you should find places.

i do wish my employer had someone to act as sort of a "relocation expert" on staff to help with this, but it is the first time that they have ever hired americans, so i am trying to be patient, as this is all new to them as well. still, it would be very nice to have some support with moving and all of its intricacies, as this is new to the five of us who were hired too.

thanks for all of the links, mumof4. i had already looked at some, and loot had nothing in hereford, but it's very cool that you sent them, and i will keep checking. my husband's fam lives in ireland, and i think we might have to go a bit early and stay with them and take a week trip over to hereford to just look for housing. i don't know if this will make finding private owners easier, but who knows? maybe we just need to be there in order to ask people.

i wonder why the rental culture is so wierd and restrictive there? it seems like everyone is buying houses now and renting them out. with the foreclosure problem being as bad as it is now worldwide and economies going south, you would think the opposite would be true - a renters market.