How long to find a place? Oh yeah, and don't forget the cats...

Hey guys!

So, I have been hesitating booking our flight over to the UK to find a place to live as I'm not sure how much time we'll need!

Background: Ed is the UK citizen, I am the US citizen and Ed does not have credit in the UK (he hasn't lived there for five years, and although he has a bank account he never had a credit card or a car or anything that would build credit). I realize this might be a difficulty,but I think his mom will act as our guarantor if necessary.

We were thinking of spending about a week in the UK in May, having hopefully booked a bunch of viewings the week or so before we go with estate agents and possibly some private landlords (because we have four cats, we know it will be really difficult to find a pet-friendly apartment).

Do you all think a week is long enough to get ourselves on a lease? We are going in May and we plan on moving in June/early July.

The alternative is to try and head over in June for potentially longer than a week.

Oh, and for reference we are hoping to live in Cambridge - and the shorter term the lease the better, as I'm unsure whether I will find a job in the area (vet jobs are apparently scarce in Cambridge as due to the vet college the job market is saturated).

OK - so you know that I'm not over there yet, but I have a feeling that your only problem is going to be the cat thing.  I've been pretty obsessed with watching rightmove.co.uk and I see a lot of properties that rent within 2-3 days of being posted on there. 

If you do some of your footwork from here by calling some estate agents for places that look nice and find out in advance about the pet issue then I would think that would help you know how long it will take.  (ie - call them about properties available in cambridge now and ask about the cat thing - see how difficult it is to find somewhere that will allow them)

Personally, we're planning on staying with my parents-in-law for the first 2-3 weeks so we can take our time finding a place.  That was my guestimated timeline to find a nice home, in a good school district.

Good luck!

It all depends on how much money you have to spend and if you actually want to live in Cambridge, or if you will be living in one of the surrounding villages.

Cambridge market is tight, lots of students willing to live in over-priced dumps and lots of people who make a good wage at tech companies.  I think four cats in Cambridge will be tough because people have their pick of renters.