Purchasing a new home is so exciting. You don’t want anything to dampen that excitement, so preparation is key to its success. Here are our top 5 things to budget for when purchasing a new home.
1. Survey
Getting a full survey is essential so that you aren’t in any doubt about the state of the house you are about to buy. No matter how much you’ve fallen in love with the house you absolutely must find out all that you can so that you can make an informed decision as to whether you can financially afford to do any remedial work.
Surveys can really make you feel as ease and can vary on cost, depending on who you get to do it. It is best to get personal recommendations if you can and also try to get a few quotes before committing to someone.
2. Removals
Getting in a company who specialise in removals is worth its weight in gold. These people seriously know their stuff. Depending on your situation you might ask them to pack up the old house or put together furniture at the new house. Personally, I wouldn’t want them to unpack too – but you might consider it worth adding to your moving budget.
We used a local company who were fantastic. We packed our individual belongings into boxes and they moved all of our furniture, furnishings and boxes to our new home. They also repositioned all of our furniture according to where we needed it to be and without them, moving day would have been very stressful and a lot of pressure to put on my husband, family and friends. If you are tempted to do the removals side of things without the professionals then you really may want to think again…
3. Upgrade
No doubt there will be things such as the boiler and controls that will need to be upgraded. A new boiler installation will often be advisable to be more fuel efficient. If you have an older style boiler, it can often take a long time to replace those parts and you need to be prepared for it to break down suddenly. Having a new boiler can be so reassuring and although it might not be cheap to install, it is great to have a new one if you can.
We all know how important it is to protect the environment by insulating our homes and it would be advisable to consider whether the insulation you have needs to be increased.
You will also need to take a look at whether you need to replace windows and doors to banish any drafts and keep the heat inside your home. You might be surprised by how much heat can be lost through this. Being cold is absolutely horrid and it is so easy to take being warm and cosy for granted.
4. Changes
In my experience, it’s worth living in your new home before making changes because it gives you an opportunity to consider what works with the space you have and what doesn’t. If you do need to make changes such as an extension then I would advise you to get an idea of how much this might cost prior to exchange of contracts.
It would be worth getting a builder to take a look to give a ball-park figure or speaking to neighbours in the street to get an idea of what they have done and how much it cost. Depending on how amenable your vendor is you might also want to ask an architect to take a look too – which would obviously incur a cost. If any changes you need to make are immediate and need to be done before you can actually move in you’ll obviously need to factor that into the budget.
5. Moving day treats
Once the removal men have left, we have a family tradition of celebrating the new home with fish, chips and champagne – that’s definitely worth budgeting for! You might want to treat yourself with something more substantial, but that’s completely up to you.
I hope you enjoyed reading this post? Moving house can be a stressful time in your life but it can also be exhilarating too and so refreshing to be able to make plans for your new life in a new property. It can be so rewarding and a challenge at the same time, but once you have bought the right house and started planning the changes and updates you may wish to make, you’ll no doubt never look back!
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