The backstory

We’re Nic and Mark. We live in London, surrounded by our blended family and our two dogs. Like many, as our family grew, our circumstances changed and we found ourselves contemplating a house move. Even though we thought we knew our city well, choosing our next ‘where’ wasn’t as easy as we expected. Also, like many of you, we’d already done this before the old-school way, with a map, highlighter pens, sticky notes and a lot of travelling around. We’d assumed it would be easier this time — it must be, right?

It wasn’t.

We knew the sort of property we were looking for, but couldn’t decide where exactly we wanted to be. We had some ideas when it came to the location, but London’s a big city — could there be other areas we’d never considered, which would suit our needs better?

We spoke to friends, who made recommendations eagerly — but those were their recommendations, their favourite areas, and founded on their yardstick not ours. That was exactly the problem — all of those ‘top 10’ lists, the friendly recommendations, the message boards, comments and subreddits, the property sites — they were just telling us about what they thought — and often what they wanted wasn’t what we did.

You can’t search for the right property to buy or rent if you don’t even really know where you want to live…

So, we got to it — we figured things out, we thought hard and carefully about the things we wanted, the things we needed and then we went deep — we explored ways to use real data to find good matches, then we built a tool to help us — and it worked — taking a mix of things, all rooted in real, measurable information that, when combined and curated, gave us the best fits for US. Some of the neighbourhoods were familiar to us and already on our radar, but there were a few surprises too — places we’d never even considered, which matched our needs well.

Then it dawned on us, there were thousands of other people like us out there, all facing the same challenges, all with different needs, and all trying to find that little bit of the city that fits them best. We realised that the tool we had built for us could help people like you too.

So we stopped.

We stepped back and thought about the things you might want and then we un-picked, we re-built, and we refined. It took time (a lot of time) and it was WAY more effort and a far bigger journey than we had ever imagined. It was exciting at times, a grind at others — but what came from that is Locatio — and we’re excited about sharing it with you.

So go explore, be honest about what you need, slide the sliders, and be as surprised as we were. Stay open-minded, consider new areas and then get out and plant your feet on the ground. Meet the locals, try their coffee and taste their foods, walk their high streets and green spaces. We hope Locatio helps you in your journey to finding your next community. If it does, let us know — we’d be genuinely thrilled to hear from you.