Did you have a flat/house lined up before you moved?

Did you have a flat/house lined up before you moved, or did you start your search after arriving from USA? I was about to start contacting a few places that Im interested in before realizing that maybe they wont even take me very seriously unless Im already in the country... idk, what do you think?

I don't know where you are relocating to, but in London don't bother till you are here. Flats get snapped up as soon as they are shown and you just don't want to rent sight unseen even IF you could find an agency to do it.

Relax. Everything will fall into place at the right time. 

My husband and I are going to fly over and get a flat, utilities etc worked out...then fly back close down our house here and pick up my cats, ship our stuff and head back for good within about a months time frame......of course that is 2 sets of plane tickets but we've been saving our "miles" for just this reason..... We can stay at his parents house but would rather have a place of our own plus they have dogs we have cats...just won't work.....

His mother would take care of all of it for us but I am funny about someone else picking a place to live for me and since flats are different there than in the US and even from one street to the next....we would rather just do it ourselves, that way when we go back all we have to do is walk thru the door and wait for our stuff to show up......

I am going to sort a place in Manchester before we go - am being sent listings and a friend said she would look at potential houses. It is a risk, but we are going to be arriving a few days before the school term starts, so we want to get somewhere sorted asap so we can get her on the list for schools. But if you have somewhere else to stay and no kids it is probably better to just go and sort it out when you are there!

We were going to go THIS week to look at houses, but our visas got held up.  My wife ended up going by herself to start the transition into her new job, but she isn't looking at houses.  We are moving to the UK on the 29th of July and will be in a serviced apartment until we can find a house.  We will be looking in the Ascot/Sunningdale area, maybe even in the Maidenhead area.  We have two kids, ages 15 and 12.  They will be attending ACS Egham.

squidzit olympics starts on the 27th, as you likely already know, but hey if u dont mind, and you remember, could you post your experience as far as crowding goes, after you arrive? (if your flying into gatwick or heathrow that is) 

Sorry I didn't post sooner one2012, but we just got internet up and running yesterday!  We've been here four weeks and Friday will be two weeks since we've been in our home.  It's too late to answer your question about the Olympics as they are over now.  We were staying in Windsor at the time of the rowing event though.  Got to see some of the Olympians walking around with their medals.  Of course they were rightly beaming with pride.   

On topic, we spent 3 days looking at houses and moved into the one of our choice within a week of looking.