Unless the OP is intimately familiar with the area, i.e. rented in the area for a couple years at least, he or she needs to get familiar with it, and that simply doesn’t happen overnight, it takes a few months – AT LEAST. It’s not a set number, true. They will know when they will become familiar enough.

Depends how much time they have on their hands too. With a young child, they may not have that much. And you need to take breaks, or weekends off for other things. And how intensive their search is.

I am still learning new things about PQ. And I’ve been looking actively in there total of more than 12 months – with breaks in between.