======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2011 11:42:29 =======
I finally got a PhD offer this week, just when I thought that it would never happen and just before I hit the big 3-0! First I would like to thank you guys for the advice and reassurance that it would happen for me eventually.

Now the good news is starting to sink in I need some advice on moving to a new city. After all my attempts to emigrate and join the predicted Brain Drain I ended up finding the perfect project at a UK university, albeit one at the other end of the country.

While I'm happy at the prospect of being hundreds of miles from London I'm not sure how to go about the move as I'll have just a few weeks to sort it. As a mature student I've had time to amass a few possessions- I've sold a lot of my stuff and there isn't much left, but there are some big things like framed pictures, lamps and furniture. I still have far too little to fill a removal van, but too much for a car, and I can't drive! I guess I need a wo/man with a van but do they do long trips? Would it be easier/cheaper/actually possible to pack a few cases and get the rest of my stuff shipped there?

Oh yes, and I also need to find a flat at short notice- in the past I've only moved within London so popping between my house, estate agents and viewings has been easy. I'm anticipating booking some appointments ahead of staying in a B&B for a week while I go to the viewings. The uni have been as helpful as they can and have given me a big list of recommended estate agents, but would Gumtree be better? I'll also need a flat to myself- I'm long past the point where living with other students is bearable.

Finally, I've read stories about PhD students getting turned down when agents hear that word "student" and assume they've got no money. I'm also worried that I have no-one to name as a guarantor- none of my family or friends own property.

Any advice? I'm not sure where to start, and as I've also got to sort out everything with the PhD itself the whole thing's a bit daunting!

Hi Flack,

Congratulations!! Is this a fully funded PhD (tuition fees + living expenses)? If so you wouldn't have much problems finding a place to rent as you will have a steady monthly salary. I myself was in a rented flat (shared with a friend of mine) and now moved into the hospital campus where my office is for convenience as am very close to submission.

I don't know if you have experience of dealing with estate agents beware don't fall for their nice polite talk. I have had really bad time trying to find a flat lost 180 pounds holding fee and bla bla bla. I am sorry for saying things like this but just thought of warning you. Get everything in writing (if you request for more furnitures, professional cleaning) and get it signed.

Try this web site http://www.excess-baggage.com/. A friend of mine recently shipped her belongings from the UK to Australia without any problems. I am sure they do it within the UK too. You can try man and van option if that would be better http://www.rapidmanandvan.com/

Good luck with your PhD and have fun in the new city!! :-)

======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2011 12:21:48 =======
Thanks Cinderella! I've got an MRC studentship so the PhD is fully-funded with a decent stipend. Looking at prices I see I could easily afford a one-bedroom flat (and I'm wondering why I've been paying inflated London prices to live in this dirty stresspit of a city!). I was just worried as I'd been warned that some agents just don't want to get involved when they hear the word "student". I've seen a few ads for flats that "would suit a mature student" but I know some agents also think students are naive and try and offload their worst accommodation on them- I've been there with my BSc!

I've had problems with estate agents before (and found they won't protect you if the landlord turns out to be dodgy- they lose all interest once they've got your signature) but more problems from dodgy private landlords. My current landlord here in London is actually really good and I'm wary of ending up with one half as bad as the two I had before him! Maybe I was just unlucky but I've been stung over the return of the damage deposit before and I'm far from alone there. Mind you this was before the Tenants Deposit Scheme came in so hopefully it won't happen again.

With estate agents I've had a few deals fall through at the last minute, leaving me high and dry- in London that wasn't so bad, with a move of a few hundred miles it would be a disaster! I just need to get those keys in my hand ASAP.

Excess Baggage looks like it could be just what I need! Thanks, I've requested a quote. Booking a removal van would be a bit silly for the amount of stuff I have and I'm sure there must be other ways. It'd be good to hand over all my stuff to a shipping company and then to just wait for them to deliver while I get on with PhD stuff. A friend of mine's using a shipping company to move to Ireland and that's fine, I'm just hoping they'll do it for my move from England to Scotland. Thanks so much!

======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2011 13:03:11 =======
I kinda know how you feel. I have 3 weeks to move to Edinburgh and whereas where I live in Worcester (England), which isn't a million miles away at 29 I have 'baggage' to take.

The best way I can think of to sort it is to just take a suitcase and a couple of boxes of books and reassuring memorabilia. That should keep me going for my first term. But then I do have the option of a trip back. It depends if/when you are going to be able to afford to visit home. My partner of 12 years isn't going to be able to move up with me so I obviously am going to have a home from home. This does make me see it as just a 4 year trip. Yes it's going to be a lot of hard work in an alien world but it's for a fixed period and I'm not sure I want to set down roots there yet.
As for the accommodation search I'm a few days in to it I don't know if it helps but here's how I started:

Create an email address for all the spam your just about to sign-up to - free websites like gumtree make their money by sending you cr*p.
Don't rely on agents, a lot of them are just looking to make a fast buck from rich over protective parents, wanting nice secure accommodation for their darling undergraduates leaving home. Research the agents (get used to it you have signed up to 3 or 4 years) carefully, I've seen a lot of VERY bad reviews of student room letting companies. I don't know if you're starting 2011-2012 academic year but now this year’s undergraduate intake have gone in I've found a lot of agents have already let all their properties.

I have a few websites I'm on with at least some free to contact rooms and the ability for me to advertise my interest in rooms. These tend to be for flatshares, bedsits etc. Again, be sure to think about security there are a lot of scammers use the sites. Especially targeting overseas students who may not be able to afford to come and view a property. Most of the websites advise you to look out for:

*An advert seems very cheap for the area and the standard shown on the photos.
*The advertiser claims they cannot show you the room and pressurises you into signing and paying before you have seen anything.
*You are asked to pay anything via Western Union or any other money transfer system.
*You receive inconsistent emails where the English degenerates from the quality in the advert and initial email.

I'm not really recommending these sites - some of their business models seem a bit harsh and there some restrictions to free users. I'm not sure how much fraud goes on either but as long as I keep my wits about me and protect my interests I think I'll be OK!

www.Studentpad.co.uk - This was a link off my accommodation services website
www.spareroom.co.uk
http://uk.easyroommate.com
And obviously GumTree

Thanks BugBoi- I should have added: my parents aren't around anymore and I have no family in the UK I can rely on to look after my stuff and help me move bit by bit- the only option is do do it all in one go. I should be able to do it but the main problem is getting the timing right- securing a flat before I have to move out of my current one, and getting the keys before I can get my stuff delivered. The window in which I can do all of this could be just a few weeks! I'm sure I'll manage and I'll cross every bridge as I come to it...

Hey Flack, congrats on getting your PhD offer- always good to hear when things work out for someone! I'm also just about to move cities for a post-doc, and I've been in my current city for 8 years, so got a lot of junk to move. I'm renting a place I found on rightmove (with my fiance), who also apparently have a section especially for students, although I don't know much about that part of it. One thing I would say is that you might need to be quite swift about the whole thing- certainly in the city I'm moving to these places go very very quickly and you can't afford to hang around. We booked a few viewings to find out that the place had gone before we even had the chance to view it. We made sure we were the first to view the property we went for and then went straight down to the estate agents afterwards to put in an application. Also be prepared for credit checks, providing references from previous landlord, documentation from your new university to prove your income etc, if you rent from a mainstream estate agents. I've never had all of this hassle when renting student accommodation from a private landlord/landlady, but the estate agents seem to be quite picky. We're just hiring a van to move everything in, and my brother is driving it for us (I can drive but a bit nervous about driving a van!). Do you have a mate who could drive for you? Sounds like you're going quite a long way though. On the plus side, Scotland is beautiful- I did undergraduate studies at Edinburgh Uni and it was a fab place to live! Good luck with the move, KB

i hear sendmybag.com are very adept at handling this kind of thing and as they are set up with students in mind, it's pretty cheap to send stuff!

also, i have just moved out of my beloved West Belfast (Ireland) to an office in the media research centre at Coleraine about 70 miles up the coast. so i've dealt with the move- albeit a lesser distance and probably different as it's in Ireland- still it's a bit of culture shock as it's so quiet up the coast, but i like it. i think most places near university campuses are dead on about letting students rent places, aren't they? probably a little less competitive (from their perspective) outside of London. so I think you should go there before going to gumtree. I know some good stories about housi9ng coming from gumtree and also a few horrible (worst year of my life) type of stories too. estate agents should see you right really. i think your proof of payment as a funded phd student should sort out their fears.

hope it helps. good luck. we should stay in touch as we are starting about the same time!

That's great, Flack. Please do post how it goes :-) I am sure you will manage. Getting an one bedroom/studio flat should be perfect. I am an international student came over to the UK in Oct 2008 and my home town in ~6000 miles away. I was crazy and brought over 75 kg all by myself (2 huge trolleys, 1 small trolley and a bag pack) - don't ask me what stuff I got with me ;-) I don't know how I managed this but I did some how! I flew from my home town and arrived in the UK, took a train to the next city and then taxi to where my accommodation was booked. Its almost like a night mare if I think about it now :p

======= Date Modified 17 Sep 2011 18:26:19 =======
I moved a couple of hundred miles for my PhD. Found a place to live using http://www.spareroom.co.uk/ which has worked out very well for me. I liked the feel of that site more than Gumtree - Gumtree seemed to me a bit prone to timewasters and exaggerations of 'stunning' overpriced bedsits, whereas spareroom.co.uk gave me a better feel of the property and likely flatmates. I found a few potential places, went to my destination for the day (just a month before I moved), visited a bunch of them and found one that was good enough to start with (and in fact has worked out so well I'm hoping to stay for the duration).

I hate driving, don't have a car and was moving in the middle of the snowy winter, so the prospect of hiring a car or twisting someone's arm to assist me did not appeal. In the end I paid a small removals firm to do it. I considered it a good investment, not least cos I'm not very strong and have a temperamental back. Google 'small removals' and you'll find firms that can give you a quote based on distance and amount of stuff (or if it gets too confusing PM me and I'll see if I can remember the name of the company I used).

One thing I would say about living arrangements - it is entirely a personally matter and you might be very different to me, but personally I didn't want to live on my own in my new destination cos I knew no-one there at all and I didn't want to be coming home to an empty flat in those circumstances. I've lived on my own before but in a place where I knew a lot of people. I shared your desire to get away from the 'living with students' lifestyle and I've ended up in a flatshare with a 20-something teacher which has been very nice as she has a nice normal lifestyle and is good company for a cuppa and a chat. So maybe don't rule out flatshares totally - just be selective. Establishing a social life somewhere new can be hard work (particularly if you're an introvert like me) so it can be nice to have a flatmate as a starting point.

Congrats on your offer and all the best for the move :)

Thanks Hazyjane- and small removals- good call! I forgot I once used such a firm and they were great- and cheap. I may try them or another small removal firm again.

As for flatshares, I'm lucky as I already have friends in the city and my new labmates seem really nice so I'm not worried about being lonely. Maybe I shouldn't rule out flatshares but I like being able to switch off when I get home and I like choosing when I can be with people and when I can be alone. I don't think I could go back to having flatmates again, plus I'm not the best person to live with myself!

Thanks again for the advice, I'll get this sorted somehow but I can't wait until it's out of the way!

Hi Flack - I am trying to organise a move from Glasgow to Bristol so I feel your pain! I have had my own flat for 6 years but decided to rent a room in a flat in Bristol initially as I thought that would be easier to organise. In terms of removals www.student-movers.co.uk are worth a look - and they have the option that you can travel for free in the van with them if you want so that saves additional travel costs and means you arrive at your destination at the same time as your stuff.

As others have suggested I used spareroom.com and gumtree to find a room - the problem I found was that most rooms were for immediate entry and I was trying to find one for Oct (this was a few weeks ago). So I decided to post 'room wanted' ads and found a really nice flat with a postdoc (through gumtree - although hers was the only relevant reply I got through gumtree so not sure how useful it is overall but worked for me). So that is organised but the thought of moving still stressful - and discussion chapter of thesis still needs to be finished!!!

Good luck with the move - and the PhD :)

Thanks for the link Tey- I think that may be the company I used last time I moved house (from one part of London to another part of London) so I may try them again.

I've been on the phone to a few estate agents this week and have had some mixed responses- I've found some have no problems accepting students with funding and only ask for a couple of references, while others seem to be doing all they can to put students off approaching them in the first place, such as asking for four references and a guarantor. One site I looked at even had a tick box on the form next to the words "tick this box if you are a student"- unsurprisingly repeating the search without ticking the box brought up more properties described as "would suit professional", which appears to be code for "students not welcome"

I have my formal offer now and my proof of income from the funding body, so I have booked a few days in a hotel for next week and will be going round a big list of estate agents. In the worst case I suppose I could pay upfront for a six month let and then move again... am I being pessimistic or do estate agents generally take a dim view of PhD students?

Hi Flack, which city are you moving too? I rented a flat when I was a Masters student (and my flat mate was a PhD student) - I don't recall our student status ever being an issue. I honestly can't remember if we even declared it (as we were both funded so had incomes). If you have to state your job on a form I would put something like 'postgraduate researcher'. I have done that at various times during my PhD as people generally don't understand that a funded PhD is essentially a job (in that you have a regular income, contract etc.)

Best of luck.

Tey- I'm moving to Edinburgh, there's a huge number of estate agents there and their terms seem to vary wildly, just as they do with estate agents in London. The University sent me a list of recommended agents but some of them seem less than student-friendly, and one a friend recommended to me which isn't on the list seems like just what I need- the agent I spoke to today said I'd be classed as a "professional" rather than a student, and that the letter with my studentship details would count as a one of the two references they need.

There is also the option of the uni's own accommodation but it's too pricey to be a long-term option... I know I'll sort this somehow but I won't be able to stop stressing until I do!

I sent you a PM...