Decisive moment

Hi.

We are progressing with our plans to emigrate in June this year. Our kids have received their Canadian Citizenship Certs and my Canadian born husband has been approved as my sponsor and my PR paperwork is back in London being processed. Our uk house is under offer.

So, now we can seriously start looking at dates and logistics.

I would really appreciate any advise / experience please on moving with school aged kids and how best to do this with the least disruption.

If we move over and rent a property we can enrol the kids into school straight away (they are 4 & 8) but then further down the line in say 6-12 months when we buy a property, will we be faced with uprooting the kids again to new schools if the house falls outside of the school catchment?

Alternatively if we move end of June is it feasible to buy a house in time to enrol the kids for the September term? how long does a house purchase take on average?

I would love to hear your experiences if you have faced similar circumstances.

Btw the areas we are looking at are around Caledon / Orangeville.

Jericho79

Absolutely, 100%, rent for at least the first year.

Buying and selling houses is notoriously expensive in Canada. Renting will allow you to make sure you like the area, building up some credit rating so you get better interest rates, and allow you to do things at your own pace, rather than rushing to buy somewhere.

ChrisBan

I don't really know much about this as never gone through it myself, but I would agree that renting would probably be your best bet at first. I couldn't imagine anything worse than buying a house only to later really hate the area you're living in. At least with renting you can take a little more time to find something suitable.

dbd33

And, since there aren't a great number of schools around Orangeville, there's not a great danger of having to move the children anyway.

Decisive moment

Thanks for your replies. I guess my biggest concern is not having to move the kids schools, after such a massive change in their life getting to canada, I want them to feel happy and settled Asap.
The thing that complicates this slightly is not knowing right now exactly where we want to live.
Maybe the best way forward would be to see the first few weeks as a holiday, staying in a hotel or similar and really investigate areas / school catchments. Then rent for a year before buying.

So much to think about!

Atlantic Xpat

Important to understand that selling a house in Canada is much more expensive than in the UK. Typical Realtors fees of 4-5%+tax vs. <1% for an Estate agent in the UK.

So you buy a $400k house and after a year decide that it was in the wrong place. To sell it costs you $20K+legal fees+moving costs. That's an expensive way to try out a new area. Unless your house has appreciated by 5% in that 12 months then you are coming out with a loss. Renting, of course, is more flexible, particularly if you have little to no knowledge of the place you are moving to.

Decisive moment

Good points, thanks

SchnookoLoly

I agree, rent for the first year or few months until you are sure. Do a recce trip and some research on the area and make a best guess. If you don't like the area, then whether you rented or bought won't change that, but buying and moving will be much more expensive, as Xpat pointed out.

Good luck!

Almost Canadian

Out of interest, of those that rented prior to purchasing, how many bought in an area radically different to where they rented?

HGerchikov

I went through the exact same thought process when we moved here, worrying that the kids would settle great into the school where we rented and then not be able to settle in a second one. I think renting makes sense to begin with. If you get the chance, come on a visit, check out the local schools, pick the one you like best and then look at properties to buy and rent in that area. Assuming that the catchment area offers properties of the type that work for you and in a budget that you are comfortable with then there is a good chance that when you are ready to buy you will find one in the school district, that you like and can afford. If the properties in your preferred school district are not something that you would buy then maybe you need to think about a different school.
We ended up buying in the same school district that we rented in, but we had been here long enough to be sure that the commute was doable, the kids were settled, and the neighbourhood was what we wanted before we signed on the dotted line for a purchase.

Decisive moment

thank you. that sounds like sensible advice. We did a reccie trip last October but as we are looking at quite rural areas and properties with land, it still meant that we were left considering a large number of areas in which to live. It would be much easier if we were happy to live in particular town and in a regular street!
Its a difficult decision as i think the kids would probably settle better, make more friends in a closer knit neighbourhood, but one of the reasons for our move is to have a bigger property, with the land etc etc. we are also planning to work from home so need outbuildings.

can I ask how old your children were when you moved and how long did it take to call Canada home?

Juggernaut1064

I arrived in Winnipeg and bought a house on the opposite side of the city to where i rented.
Here in Edmonton similar thing, wasn't a "bad" area i rented in i just found a really nice area i liked more then got a steal on a good size 2 bed condo for $170k includes heat and water and two parking stalls in the $250 fee's lol

HGerchikov

They were 9 and 5. They settled in really quickly. We came the beginning of August and stayed downtown Toronto for a week while my husband was working. The older one hated that, but on the first day I brought them out to Oakville and showed them the home we would be renting and their school, and they both loved the area. I didn't start work until a couple of weeks after they went to school so we treated August as a holiday, we went on long walks and swam in the neighbourhood pool, and then they were ready to meet other kids when school started. They settled in very fast, younger one had full blown Canadian accent by the end of the first week at school and they were both happy from day one.

Decisive moment

oh thats lovely to hear! I'm very worried about the whole thing, especially for my 8 year old. My 4 year old was also calling me 'Mom' at the end of our two week trip in October. Amazing how quickly they adapt!

HGerchikov

The 9 year old was my biggest worry too, he was more of a sensitive child, the younger one is the type that would be fine wherever you put him. However the Canadian way of life really suited the older one, and he has grown into a really lovely, confident young man (he is 19 now). The thing that helped us was finding something he really wanted to do that was readily available in Canada but not in the UK. Before we knew we were coming here he had expressed an interest in playing ice hockey (his dad is from Russia). The first thing he said when we told him we were moving was, 'I will be able to play ice hockey'. He saved up all his birthday money and then the first week we were here we bought him all the equipment (which he slept in) and booked him in for lessons.
Try and not to let them see that you are worried, I think they pick up so much from our response to things.