Whether you decide that your house is too small or you want to move to a new area, committing to investing in a new property is a big deal. It is important to make sure that your whole family is on board with the move, and that you won’t encounter any significant hurdles or miss important steps in the process.
Moving home is a daunting task, and can take months of careful planning, budgeting and speaking with solicitors. But when you do finally have the home you’ve always wanted, all that hard work is more than worth the effort put in. Here’s a simple step by step guide to moving home.
Find Your Perfect Property
Before anything else, you need to decide exactly what you want out of your new home. Sit down and think about your reasons for moving on, and the things you’d like to see in a prospective property. This will make finding your dream house much easier and less hassle. There are loads of sites such as Savills which pull data from multiple estate agencies to make the search easier.
Deal With The Legal Stuff
The longest part of home buying is all the legal procedures. From the moment you make an offer on a property is it’s accepted, you will need to make an appointment with a mortgage lender to apply for the mortgage, hire a solicitor to deal with affairs and face a long wait while conditions are drawn up, checks are completed and contracts are exchanged.
Decide What You’re Taking With You
You may decide that you want to leave some of your bigger pieces of furniture behind, or perhaps you don’t mind leaving your fixtures and fittings because you will have them in the new house anyway. Draw up a detailed list of everything you are departing with at the property and that way your estate agent can pass this onto your buyer.
Choose A Mover or Rent A Van
Once you are ready to plan your move, you will need to decide whether you need to hire a professional mover or rent a vehicle yourself. Take a look at how to hire movers and work out how much stuff you need to transfer to your new home. This will dictate what size vehicle you require and how many trips you’ll need to make.
Make A Budget
Moving costs money. If you are a first-time buyer, you’ll most likely need to buy new appliances, furniture and essentials for you home. It may be useful to make a list of everything you need and approximate the budget you will need to purchase everything. Compare this with the funds you have, and sacrifices may have to be made.
Make The Move
The day has arrived, you are ready to go. In the week before your moving date, you should be packing up your belongings gradually to make it less time-consuming on the day. Get everything organized, meet with your movers and get going! Once you are in your new home, you’ll probably need to set up a makeshift bed and eat takeaways for the first few days, but that doesn’t matter because you are home.