How do you normally work this?

I'm thinking about moving out with one of my housemates to get a 2 bed flat. She thinks that it's a good idea just to let the estate agents know that we are looking for a flat for a certain time - ie, if we find a nice flat, then we say that we'll need it in a months time and then hand our notice in - or work it in a similar way to this.

I'm more keen on just jumping in at the deep end and handing our notice in, then start looking. There's loads of places around, so I don't think that we'll have a problem finding anywhere, plus a month really is a very long time when you think about it. If you worked hard to find somewhere, a month is more than enough time imo. This way we will maximise our remaining months rent and lose very little, plus there are a lot more options open because we are able to mobilise a lot more sooner.

With my housemates method, we are tied to properties that are only available during the time period we specify, which I think is going to be very tricky and also take a very long time to sort. No landlord is going to be cool with someone wanting to move in in a months time.

Dunno, how would you do it?