HOME MOVING COSTS

There are many different costs involved in moving home and you should make sure that you are aware of what they all are.

The Costs of Selling

If you want to move you are going to have to budget for many different costs. To start with you are going to have to consider the cost of selling your home. Before you do that you should make sure your house or flat is well presented and in top condition ready for viewing.

You may need to spend some money on cleaning, repairs, decorating and furnishings to ensure that the property sells quickly. Remember that first impressions really do count and if you have a garden make sure it looks good too. Flowers really do help, both inside and outside.

The biggest of the selling costs you will have to budget is the commission you will have to pay to your estate agent for selling your property. An Estate Agents fee will typically be 1.5% to 4% of the sale price of the property and don’t forget that the estate agent will add 17.5% VAT to their bill.

For example if you sell a flat at £100,000 an estate agent who gets 2% commission will charge you £2000 plus VAT, which is a total of £2035. If you sell a house for £250,000 with same estate agent charging 2% their bill would be £5875.

You can make substantial savings on this by selling privately, but you will still have costs for advertising etc.

The second largest cost of selling will be legal fees, which you will have to pay to your solicitor and which could be up to £500.

The Costs of Moving

When you actually move out of your current home you will have to pay a removal company to move all your furniture and possessions to your new home. Expect to pay up to £500 for your removal costs if you currently own a flat or up to £1000 if you own a semi-detached or small house. Large properties will obviously cost more.

You can obviously save money by hiring a van and doing it yourself but you will need to be fit, able and willing to take this option. If you need to move everything on the same day then don’t underestimate how big a project this might be.

Bridging Loan

You may find that there is a need to provide the money for your new home before the sale on your old home has been completed.

In this situation you will need to get a short-term loan to pay for the new property while you wait for the proceeds from the sale of your existing property. This is known as a bridging loan because it bridges the gap between the new home purchase and the sale of your old home.

A bridging loan will be provided on the basis that you pay it back to the lender as soon as your house sale is completed. You will have to pay interest until you sell and may have to pay an arrangement fee as well. The interest rate may be larger than your current mortgage and the costs could get quite high if the period of the loan has to be extended.

The Costs of Buying

These can be quite large and should be added to all the above costs to give you a final figure for what it is really going to cost you to move.