A California family of 5 found a house in Scotland listed for under $270,000. The catch: It was half the size of their old place.

• Zach and Annie moved their family from California to Scotland for a simpler life.
• The couple, who have three young kids, loved California but felt it was too fast-paced.
• They said life in Scotland reminded them of their own childhoods in the 1990s.

Zach, 38, and Annie, 37, packed up their lives and moved their family from the US to Scotland earlier this year.

They’d been living in California, where Zach, who’s originally from Scotland, was working with the highway patrol.

Because of Zach’s job, the couple and their three kids had to move frequently throughout the state. Although they had a chance to live in places such as Sonoma County and around Silicon Valley, life always felt “extremely fast-paced,” Annie, who works in healthcare, told Business Insider.

“Life just seemed to be work, or school for the kids, a little break, and then repeat. It seemed hard to fit in a lot of quality family time or fun little adventures,” Zach told BI.

The couple, whose children, two sons and one daughter, are under 10, asked to be identified by only their first names to protect their privacy.

They wanted to live a simpler life with their kids away from the rat race and the pressure to constantly keep up with the Joneses.

Annie had always wanted to live in Scotland, and late last year, after a decade of living in California, it finally seemed like the right time for their family to seriously consider taking the plunge.

Preparing for the move

The move felt like it’d been 10 years in the making.

“Ever since I met Zach, I’ve wanted to live in Scotland,” Annie said. “It’s just been me slowly wearing him down and trying to get him to come back.”

The timing for their move was right, in part because their kids were still young.

“We knew if we were ever going to make the move, we had to move before our kids established true friend groups and got too far in their academics to where that transition would be difficult,” Annie said.

The couple knew they wanted to be in the East Lothian area just outside Edinburgh because it was near where Zach grew up. It was also a place their kids were familiar with.

“We made an effort pretty much every year, apart from during COVID-19, to travel back to Scotland,” Zach said.

Familiarity aside, their kids were also excited by the move because they’d made plenty of good memories on their past visits.

“They love Scotland because they’ve been here so many times, and every time they come over they think it’s magic because their grandparents spoil them and take them to all of the best places,” Annie said. “So when we said that we were moving to Scotland, they were all for it for the most part.”

While Zach and their kids had UK passports, Annie had to apply for a spousal visa, which she said took about two months to be approved.

Then came the exciting part: looking for a house. They said even though they were still living in California at the time, the process wasn’t too hard.

“Annie’s hobby is looking at houses all around the world — she’s constantly browsing for fun,” Zach said.

When the listing for a cozy three-bedroom house came up, the couple jumped on the opportunity.

“When it popped up, I thought it was ridiculously underpriced,” Annie said. “It was actually the only house that Zach’s parents went and toured for us.”

With Zach’s parents’ encouragement, the couple decided to put in an offer for the house and ended up getting it.

They preferred to keep the exact amount private but said they paid about 15% more than the original asking price of about £200,000, or about $265,000.

“Budget-wise, our goal was always to try to not have this huge mortgage hanging over our head,” Zach said. “It was something we felt we had in the States, especially in California, where house prices are crazy.”

Getting settled into their home

Zack and Annie are part of a wave of California residents choosing to leave the state.

Between 2021 and 2022, 817,669 people left California — making it the US state with the most people moving out.

Several former residents BI previously spoke to said rising crime rates and the high cost of living were factors in their decision to leave California.

Zack and Annie closed on the house in February but arrived in Scotland with their kids in May.

Since the couple bought their house without viewing it in person, they were a little concerned that it would feel too small for their family of five.

“We just moved from a pretty large four-bedroom house that’s at least 2,000 square feet in the States to about 950 square feet in Scotland,” Annie said. “That’s a big change. But when we walked in, the rooms were all really nicely sized, and they just felt right.”

They spent about two months renovating the place while living with Zach’s parents. It wasn’t until late July that they finally moved into their new house.

“The kids never saw the house unfinished. The moment they stepped in the door, their room was decorated, and they had their beds set up with all their toys on it,” Annie said. “They walk in, and they think everything’s beautiful when we actually shed blood, sweat, and tears trying to make it a home, but it was definitely worth it.”

It’s also easy for the family to get around their neighborhood on foot. The main street of their town, where there are cafés, shops, and a grocery store, is only a 10-minute walk away, Annie said.

“We have trails just outside our doorstep where the kids can go explore. There are beaches not too far away,” she said, adding that there’s no need for a car unless they’re driving the kids to their grandparents’ place.

“It’s a process to get every child loaded up in a car, so we wanted to reduce that as much as possible,” she said. “And now we just walk to everything we do, and I feel we’re healthier for it.”

If they’re ever feeling up for a small adventure, they can easily drive 20 minutes to the various small towns around them, Zach said.

“Whereas in the States, if we wanted to go do something different or outside our little area, it’s probably a 45-minute drive, and then it becomes more of a day trip,” he said.

A simple life

The couple said life in Scotland is simpler, which is exactly what they were looking for.

Even though they’ve only been in the country for a few months, the couple said they feel more content with life in Scotland — so much so that they even started a YouTube channel documenting their adventures.

Although the couple enjoyed living in the US, life in Scotland reminded them of their own childhoods.

“Seeing what the children could get by being over here was sort of nostalgic. It brought us back to the ’90s childhood we had,” Annie said. “You go out and play until the streetlights turn on, and we just felt this sense of peace and safety in Scotland.”

Correction: October 3, 2024 — An earlier version of this story misstated the converted dollar amount of the home’s asking price. It was about $265,000, not $340,000.

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