HELP! Need to find a nice place in Scotland

Ok, my expat story is a long sad one.  Without getting into all the gory details, my husband is a Scotsman.  Born in Dumbarton where he lived most of his life except for a few years in Largs (which he hated by the way. My mind boggles at this). I was born in Minneapolis and lived most of my life there.  I spent most of 2009 living in Dumbarton (miserable, but there were many reasons for this besides being in Dumbarton).  I came back to the US, mainly to sort out a problem with my oldest daughter's passport.  Now myself, and my 3 children are going back to Scotland, hopefully in the next few months.  I have told my husband we have to find a new place to live before I get back.  Yes, he is still in Scotland :\\\'( 
I did not get to travel around Scotland much when I was there, but was hoping someone could help me with some ideas of some nice places to live with a family.  My oldest daughter is school age and I know she will be nervous about starting school in a new place.  I love Edinburgh and I loved Largs.  My husband is a West coast kind of guy.  Not sure if I will get him to branch out much.  But I am open to any and all suggestions! 

Edinburgh is very, very, very, very expensive with 3 kids.  The housing and council tax there is the third most expensive in the entire UK.  And the school situation!

Well, it's why we left, tbh, even though my husband had never lived anywhere else in his life and our two eldest were born there.

The problem is that the rents in a good catchment area/zone for schools are extremely high AND even if you are in the catchment area, if the school is over-subscribed, which it usually is if it's good, there's no guarantee you'll be granted a place at the school.

That was unacceptable to us.

If you have a higher budget, then it's definitely worth a look!  But for us it was priced out of our league.

The other issue is jobs.  Could your spouse easily transfer if he is working in Dumbarton?  It doesn't look like much in miles between Edinburgh and Glasgow, but it's easily at least an hour.  And the cost is not insignificant because petrol and even public transport costs are much higher.

There is a recession on here, so it could be your spouse's reluctance to move might be due to job worries, a valid concern at the moment for many.

For many and especially with a family, it's not advisable to make plans to move unless there's already a job in place.  Thing about jobs here is that many of them have a 6-month probationary period ad at any time during that 6 months or at the end of it a person can lose the job, and I were chief breadwinner for 5 people it would be a frightening prospect unless you're talking about a highly renumerated job or if I had a large amount of savings.

Also, unless you are living in housing let by a social landlord, many tenancies are usually only secure for the first 4 months.  After this, the landlord can give you notice to quit in two months/60 days.

TBH, iin this economic climate, if your spouse has a good, steady job and accommodation to house 5 people, I'd stick with the devil you know for at least a wee while until things improve.

HTH.

Fife is a wonderful, family-friendly place to live if you like the countryside. It's not heavy on jobs depending on the area and the field though. What does your husband do for a living?

Fife is a wonderful, family-friendly place to live if you like the countryside. It's not heavy on jobs depending on the area and the field though. What does your husband do for a living?

I agree!  It has a lot of good spots. 

I like Largs, too, and it can appear mind-boggling that someone can not want to live in a place that is, on the face of it, very beautiful, but unfortunately there's a big difference between first impressions of many places and actually living there, particularly with a large-ish family, and sometimes the general feel of a place and its people.

Living in a place which is popular usually involves a lot of compromise unless your budget is extremely generous, so perhaps spending some more time looking around, visiting, doing reasearch about services (including health care facilities) and job availability, is a bonus.

Fife is a wonderful, family-friendly place to live if you like the countryside. It's not heavy on jobs depending on the area and the field though. What does your husband do for a living?

Yep I agree with superl,expat.. Fife is a lovely area and lots of different sized villages,towns to choose from..Easy access to the motorway makes access to lots of different parts of Scotland nice and simple..
Course I may be a bitty biased...  I live in Fife.

Kay

When bf and I were traveling around Scotland this spring, we thought Inverness was very nice. Of course, we weren't trying to live there, so I have no idea what the cost of living would be, or how difficult it would be to find jobs, etc.  Still, it wasn't too big, but was still well-equipped for shopping, etc, with beautiful countryside. 

Thank you so much for all your replies.  I have taken all you said to heart.  I do understand the  economic situation is almost as bad in the UK as it is here in the US and this is important to take into consideration.  I can't go back to Dumbarton.  That is not even an option.  My brother-in-law lives there and he was also part of the reason I left.  I won't get into that story, but I won't be anywhere near him.  Glasgow is an option though.  My husband works in Glasgow in a call centre, so this would be convenient for him.  It would probably save money on transportation.  I don't care for Glasgow much, but then I haven't seen much of it.  And it would be nice to be near a major train station.   I am more worried about schools that anything I think.  If my oldest daughter is unhappy I will be unhappy too.  I just don't want to end up bringing my whole family over there again and find out we can't make it there.  I need to do everything possible to make our experience a happy one because my last experience there was as far from happy as you can get

How about a town commuting distance to Glasgow but not Dumbarton?  Like Balloch, or one in the Central Belt close-ish to Glasgow like Falkirk?

Would it be possible for you to come for a visit and perhaps arrange to visit the headteacher in a school in an area where you'd like to rent?

Glasgow's great, but it's not inexpensive, either, and the train stations are in very urban areas.  And some of the schools can be less than ideal.

If your spouse has secure employment in a call centre it'd be taking a real risk to let that go right now. 

If you can arrange a visit it might go a long way towards research on finding a suitable place.

Remember to include council tax in any rent you see, it's usually not included and if it is the rent reflects that.

I've been in Glasgow for a year and haven't had any problems with it. I've heard that some places around Motherwell are nice. I think East Kilbride also has some really nice areas. Both are within commuting distance of Glasgow (I know people who live in each).

First though someone said Inverness is a nice place. What does it cost to rent a place there?

Apartment/flat, 1 bed minimum.

Cottage/House.

May I ask the dumb question of the day?

First though someone said Inverness is a nice place. What does it cost to rent a place there?

Apartment/flat, 1 bed minimum.

Cottage/House.

Ooh me, me!!  I know the answer,   I have been all over this lately...  :\\\'(

1 bedroom flat, for the outskirts of town in a 4 plex, small patio/garden/no outside space furnished £450/month
1 bedroom posh flat by the river, balcony, furnished, £780/month
2 bedroom flat, in town, a bit run down and/or "character", furnished, small patio/garden/no outside space £500-£650/month
2 bedroom flat, for the outskirts of town, no outside space, new build (1-3 years old) flat blocks, £600-£750/month
2 bedroom house, for the outskirts of town, small garden, new build (1-3 years old), £650-£800/month
2 bed house, in town, a bit run down and/or "character", furnished, small patio/garden/no outside space £650-£850/month
Cottage, outside of town, 2 bedrooms, large garden £570/month
 
Expect to add £50-£100 month per each bedroom

Expect petrol, cars, goods, everything to be more expensive, since it has to come all the way up here, with really only 1 road to get here.    


ETA: Add another £130-£150 for council tax for these size properties.

Thanks PB!
I'm in the middle of fixing my sprinklers right now but I will study your reply later.

I wish my adult children would move to Inverness.

This is the third time she has caught him.

Is that his third strike?

I'm not sure what you mean?

Not a baseball fan, Jim? 

Three strikes YERRRRRRRR OUT!

As EIS said, Balloch is nice and your dh could easily commute to Glasgow.  I don't know about the schools but the town itself is nice.