Reading Time: 7 minutes The Important Things You Need To Do When Moving
This is a guest post by Ellie Jo with tips on moving.
If you are going to be moving, then you have got to remain organized. There are too many people who get confused, stressed, and panic when they move because they haven’t taken the time to plan. The best thing that you can do for yourself is make a list of all the things that need doing, and then go through them one by one. Change the order of the list so that the most important thing is at the top, and then work your way down so that you can eventually tick everything off.
In this article, we are going to be taking a look at some of the important things that you need to do when you are moving house. If you find something on this list that you hadn’t thought of, make sure that you get it sorted quickly to avoid that nightmare on moving day. If you would like to find out more about this topic, keep reading down below.
Hire A Real Estate Agent
The first thing that you are going to need to do is hire a real estate agent. You need someone to help you sell your house who has your interests at heart, not the other parties. The problem is that a lot of people don’t think about this, and they aren’t careful when they are choosing someone to represent them. The amount of people that just go for the first firm they see is staggering, and they might not be getting the best for their money. It’s for this reason that you should shop around before you choose a real estate agent. There are certain questions to ask a realtor before you can choose them anyway, so make sure that you do.
We understand that for some people, all they want is a quick move, but that doesn’t mean that you should forget about all the necessary steps. If you want the best move possible, you’re going to have to follow the steps, and who knows what’s going to happen if you don’t. It’s understandable that you might think you don’t have time for things like this, but this is one of the most important decisions that you are going to make throughout the entire process.
Get An Inspection
Your home needs an inspection before you can put it on the market. While it is true that potential buyers who want to make an offer on your home will also have an inspection conducted on the house, it is important to know what you can expect. When you are getting your home ready to sell, you are going to need to know if there is anything that needs to be done that you can’t see. As such, an inspection will give you the answers, and then you can fix it before the next inspector is here. Trust us when we say that it is always better to know what is coming than to try and guess your way through things.
Getting an inspection will ensure that your property is in ti[ top condition because we know that you will sort those problems if you can. It might be the case that there is unfixable damage, and in this case, you will just have to knock some money off the asking price.
Get Your House Valued
Another thing that you should do is get your house valued. We’re sure that you have some kind of number in your head as to what your house is worth, but you need a professional to value it for you. You can’t just put your home on the market for any random number that you have come up with. It might be too low and someone will snap it up for a steal, but you lose a lot of money on it. Or, you might set the price way too high and no one will be interested. The thing that you need to remember is that you see your home as more valuable because it has been your home. You see it as this fantastic space, whereas someone else might not see it through the rose colored spectacles that you are wearing.
Once you have got your house valued, that’s when you can decide on an asking price. Usually, people go with the value that they have been given, sometimes choosing to go a little higher or lower. But, people don’t generally tend to stray much after the valuation.
Start Making Some Changes
You should then start making some changes to your home. You need to make sure that you are packing up, making space for other boxes to be, labelling things. But, make sure that you are doing this slowly so that things don’t go too fast. You don’t want to be in a rush at all throughout this process, especially not when it comes to packing. While there might not be that much to actually pack, it would be nice to be able to do it while remembering the good times that you had in the home, not the bad ones.
Take the art of the walls, and turn your home into a blank canvas for the next lot of people who live here. If you make the home blank, it means that they will be able to imagine their own life here, with their kids and their family and anything else that they desire. Take it one step at a time, and eventually your whole house is going to look like a show home.
Boost Your Curb Appeal
It’s not just the interior that needs to look good though, it’s the exterior too. You need to work on boosting your curb appeal as this is the first glimpse of the home that someone gets. If it looks rundown from the outside, it will taint someone’s impression of your home right from the get go. As such, you need to do some yard work. This means getting the lawn mower out and cutting the grass every couple of days to ensure it stays at a nice height. It also means ensuring that the place is clean which could mean hiring a pressure washing company.
There are plenty of ways to boost your curb appeal, so you don’t have to worry. You could even get some decorations like a bird bath or a garden gnome.
Find A New Place To Live
Have you found a new place to live yet? If the answer is no then you need to start working on it sooner rather than later. If you are selling your house, then there is no way that you can stay in it, which means that the logical step is to find a new place to live. However, this can be quite tough, so you are going to need your real estate agent for this also. By doing this, you will be able to get some of the best deals on the market, making sure that you get a beautiful place wherever it is that you are going.
Keep in mind what others in your family might think of the house. You can’t just purchase it, and then say that’s where you’re living, especially if your kids are old enough to form opinions. It’s true that you get the final say, but you need to let them think they are involved in the decision making. Listen to what they have to say, and then take it from there.
Sort Out Your Old Stuff
If you’re going to be moving, you are not going to want all of your old stuff cramping up all of your space. You might think that you do at the moment, but there is going to be a lot in the throw away pile so that you know you are only taking the items that you actually want. Sometimes you don’t want the thing itself, but the memory that is attached to it, and that is completely fine but you hold the memories in your heart and in your mind either way.
Sort through all the stuff and then decide what you want to keep and what you want to throw. Don’t forget that you can rent a storage locker if you don’t want to get rid of some stuff but don’t want to keep it either.
We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the important things that you are going to need to do when you are moving house. It’s not like moving house is a simple process, it takes a long time and a lot of effort so make sure that you are prepared for this. All of the things that we have mentioned above and more need to be done before you can move house, so make sure that you get started on these sooner rather than later. We wish you the very best of luck, and hope that you get everything sorted, finding the home that you have always wanted in the process.
Rachel is an Austin blogger, educator, mom, wife, young breast cancer survivor writing about health, saving money, and living a happy life in Austin, Texas.
Rachel has written for HuffPost and Hometalk and has been featured on KXAN, Studio 512, Fox 7 Austin, and CBS Austin.