We are really keen to move house – we’d love to be closer to the countryside and in a less built-up area. There are some really good things about our house and I love our street but there are several things that we’d like that we haven’t got now, like a flat garden. We would also like to get into a different catchment area for when our daughter starts school in a couple of years. We only planned to stay in this house for a few years when we bought it and that time has quickly passed.
Last year we decided to start getting our house ready to put on the market so we started doing some decluttering and touching up. We’ve jetwashed the patio and drive, touched up a few areas of paint and spruced up our conservatory to make sure it looks like a usable space, rather than the dumping ground it was previously! We sold a few pieces of furniture which created a nice bit of space in the house which allowed us to rearrange our furniture to make the rooms look less cluttered. We had to pack up some of the contents (mainly books) which thankfully we just about had space for in the attic. We also packed away some of our ornaments and knick-knacks which may be meaningful to us, but may just make the place look messy to others!
Unfortunately, since last summer there seem to have been hardly any houses going up for sale in the areas that we are interested in and house prices seem to have rocketed, while our street doesn’t seem to be increasing at the same rate! We’ve been keeping a close eye on the local property market and I get daily alerts showing me the houses that have gone up for sale in the last 24 hours in the areas I’m interested in that fit my criteria. Rightmove gives you the option to draw your own search area to make it really specific to you which is great! It really helps if you’re only interested in certain parts of an area. I currently have mine capturing a broader area including my current area so I can get a feel for what’s coming onto the market at what price. I also like to keep an eye on houses coming on to the market to see what the photography and listing are like. Some estate agents have very few, poor quality photos whereas others use lots of great photos and I want to make sure we use an agent who will show off our house in the best way possible. And if I see any property listings with typos that agent is straight off the list!
We’ve also recently been looking into how much we can afford to take out on mortgage, as well as moving costs such as solicitor and estate agency fees and stamp duty. We find it useful to have a look at websites where you can work out your monthly payments based on different house prices and deposits and can calculate how different interest rates would affect your monthly cost. There are also other useful calculators on there such as a remortgaging calculator for people who aren’t looking to move but are coming to the end of their current mortgage deal. Once we’ve figured out what we think we can afford it’s important to do a Decision in Principle (also known as an Agreement in Principle) with a mortgage provider to see if they’re likely to lend as much as we’d like. If you’re a first-time buyer one of these is often essential for your offer on a house to be accepted.
We think we will probably use movers when we do move house. We have always done it ourselves before (with lots of family help!) but now that we have a child it is probably worth spending the money to have people do all the heavy lifting for us! It will save so much time and stress and we can just focus on moving somewhere new!
We also like to keep an eye on property news such as this article from BBC News which talks about how the pandemic has affected the property market and how demand has outstripped supply, pushing up prices – no wonder we’re struggling! My local area was already struggling with high demand so the pandemic has only made it harder in an already tough market.
Things are always changing and as the pandemic continues to develop and we start to come out the other side the property market will continue to evolve so we want to make sure we’re in the best position for when we do finally manage to find the right property for us!
This is a collaborative post.
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