The First few days
The first few days in your new house will feel just as if you're still packing, just you'll be unpacking and making a mess. Its impractical to even try to consider being organized and unpacked within one day, unless you have very few belongings, so you should try to unpack in the order you packed, or as close to it as possible, placing boxes in or near the room you're planning to unpack may be impractical, depending on the size of the house, but makes things easier.
Its perfectly acceptable not to unpack everything in the first few days, if you've moved to a new area, you may want to (or need to) explore and familiarize yourself with any public transport, local facilities, or shops in the area. You'll need to go out and buy at least the basics, saving the 'big shop' until you've unpacked your kitchen. You'll probably unpack that and your living room, and if you're not taking long off work, your home office first.
Unpacking takes place over six to twelve weeks, depending on your family, and you may find that you have to permanently store items in a garage, basement or attic, because there just isn't the room for them.
Most of your utilities should be on and connected for moving, but you may find that your Internet and phone, cable or satellite take several weeks to be reconnected. In these cases, you should make the most of the change, and unpack as much as you can. After a month or two, your life will be back into its work/life/sleep pattern so consider any break from it, if you can, a holiday of sorts. Once your utilities are all reconnected, you may find you have less time to unpack, so its good to get as much of it out of the way as possible.
If you are returning to work, outside the home, after a move, ensure you know your new route to work, and allow some extra time for the journey....just in case.
If you packed every personalized items and notes the right way, now is the time for the last of those items to take out, so you'll have an easy start.
You can also ensure that any schools, health practitioners or other regular visitors or places you regularly need to visit have your new contact details, if necessary. Some places/offices require an new address to register your family/children's records to, so its important, if you can, to have as much information as possible to make the new home address landing as easy and fast as possible.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
3 Weeks Before The Move
Three Weeks to go
At three weeks to go, you'll hopefully have finished packing your cupboards - you'll be able to start packing any non essential belongings and put them away too. If you're painting any rooms, its a good idea to try to do so in the next few days, so its all ready, and order any packing supplies you want or need. Ordering as far in advance is important because you'll have the supplies on hand.
You can start investigating schools in your new area and list any questions you may want to ask. While considering which the best school in the area is, you also have to consider how accessible it is, whether there's a school or public bus route to take your children there and whether you need to pay for this.
Your quotations should be coming in now too, from those that you've requested them from, and they should be making appointments to evaluate your belongings, to decide what size of van you'll need and how many men you'll need to help you move - or just the size of van you'll need. You should have chosen your new utility provider by now, and have any forms you need to fill out for your bank, so that there's no delays in changing your details to your new home. If you're letting, you should also have a lease by now, with details of what you are going to have to take care of on moving in.
Your Internet is also something you should start closing down, and let them know when you're moving, if they have to come pick up (or move) your equipment, now is a good time to arrange this. Internet service providers have a minimum notice clause, so its good to make sure that you meet this, or you may be over billed, or fined.
When you get close to the last two days to go, if you haven't got a van with power points, you'll need to start defrosting your freezer. Easier said than done, but it saves you having to clean up water in the van, or worse, damaging your boxes and bags because your freezer has leaked. Any food you're using now should be as minimal prep as possible, so that you can pack any tins, cans, pots and pans you have left over.
Final checks with your utilities should also be made – hopefully, you'll have managed to either transfer or connect a new phone number at your new house, so you can start updating contact details. You should also phone your doctors surgery/local health care provider, or church group to let them know you're going to be at a new address.
At three weeks to go, you'll hopefully have finished packing your cupboards - you'll be able to start packing any non essential belongings and put them away too. If you're painting any rooms, its a good idea to try to do so in the next few days, so its all ready, and order any packing supplies you want or need. Ordering as far in advance is important because you'll have the supplies on hand.
You can start investigating schools in your new area and list any questions you may want to ask. While considering which the best school in the area is, you also have to consider how accessible it is, whether there's a school or public bus route to take your children there and whether you need to pay for this.
Your quotations should be coming in now too, from those that you've requested them from, and they should be making appointments to evaluate your belongings, to decide what size of van you'll need and how many men you'll need to help you move - or just the size of van you'll need. You should have chosen your new utility provider by now, and have any forms you need to fill out for your bank, so that there's no delays in changing your details to your new home. If you're letting, you should also have a lease by now, with details of what you are going to have to take care of on moving in.
Your Internet is also something you should start closing down, and let them know when you're moving, if they have to come pick up (or move) your equipment, now is a good time to arrange this. Internet service providers have a minimum notice clause, so its good to make sure that you meet this, or you may be over billed, or fined.
When you get close to the last two days to go, if you haven't got a van with power points, you'll need to start defrosting your freezer. Easier said than done, but it saves you having to clean up water in the van, or worse, damaging your boxes and bags because your freezer has leaked. Any food you're using now should be as minimal prep as possible, so that you can pack any tins, cans, pots and pans you have left over.
Final checks with your utilities should also be made – hopefully, you'll have managed to either transfer or connect a new phone number at your new house, so you can start updating contact details. You should also phone your doctors surgery/local health care provider, or church group to let them know you're going to be at a new address.
When selling your house
If you're selling your house, you have to do several things to ensure its ready for a smooth and easy sale. You can hire an estate agent, interior stager or complete sales teams to sell your house - or you can do it yourself.
Houses are considered to be easiest to sell when they are clean, tidy, free of clutter, and the walls are neutrally toned - some sites and experts suggest painting your walls white, others suggest that you should paint them with pale, neutral, matching colors. If this isn't possible, it is important to make sure your walls are clean, removing clutter and cleaning woodwork and painted walls, can give your room a much needed lift.
also when selling, to make your house easier to sell is to be flexible with the pricing. Help you buyer by be open mind to make him the option to give something up as collateral and allow the buyer to pay you the down payment over time. If you’ll be available to do it, you will increase a lot more potential buyers. Today there is less and less of people out there that can get a mortgage and even more people that don't have the down payment in cash. Do this but don’t forget to put everything in writing so everyone sees it and there is no confusion.
If you're decluttering, you can also begin packing whilst doing so, but considering some houses sell up to three months before you're planning on moving OR up to a year after you've moved, its also important not to plan to sell straight away, unless your house is in a highly sought after area, and you've got a good, competitive price. If not, you might be in for quite a wait on selling your house - and you also have to find a new place to move to yourself.
Estate agents, and Realtors do a great job of selling houses, but in an ever increasingly competitive market, you have to do very unique things to sell your house - it has been reported that some people are offering new cars, or paying the tax on your house for the first year of your stay in the new house. The housing market is always expanding, but you can't sell just anything - dilapidated houses can't simply be considered 'fixer uppers' and all houses for sale have to meet ever increasing stringent codes - or have new owners that will fix these to meet those codes.
One last thing you can do is to throw anything within the sale of your home. Some things you can throw in are a computer, a barbecue grill or a piece of useful furniture. If you do throw in something with the sale of your home, it is important to make sure it is something very useful and something that will get the require attention of the buyer, of course it must be brand new. When selling a house the small things you will do can be the different between a sale and loosing a potential buyer. If you use the tips right it can make your house selling much easier.
Houses are considered to be easiest to sell when they are clean, tidy, free of clutter, and the walls are neutrally toned - some sites and experts suggest painting your walls white, others suggest that you should paint them with pale, neutral, matching colors. If this isn't possible, it is important to make sure your walls are clean, removing clutter and cleaning woodwork and painted walls, can give your room a much needed lift.
also when selling, to make your house easier to sell is to be flexible with the pricing. Help you buyer by be open mind to make him the option to give something up as collateral and allow the buyer to pay you the down payment over time. If you’ll be available to do it, you will increase a lot more potential buyers. Today there is less and less of people out there that can get a mortgage and even more people that don't have the down payment in cash. Do this but don’t forget to put everything in writing so everyone sees it and there is no confusion.
If you're decluttering, you can also begin packing whilst doing so, but considering some houses sell up to three months before you're planning on moving OR up to a year after you've moved, its also important not to plan to sell straight away, unless your house is in a highly sought after area, and you've got a good, competitive price. If not, you might be in for quite a wait on selling your house - and you also have to find a new place to move to yourself.
Estate agents, and Realtors do a great job of selling houses, but in an ever increasingly competitive market, you have to do very unique things to sell your house - it has been reported that some people are offering new cars, or paying the tax on your house for the first year of your stay in the new house. The housing market is always expanding, but you can't sell just anything - dilapidated houses can't simply be considered 'fixer uppers' and all houses for sale have to meet ever increasing stringent codes - or have new owners that will fix these to meet those codes.
One last thing you can do is to throw anything within the sale of your home. Some things you can throw in are a computer, a barbecue grill or a piece of useful furniture. If you do throw in something with the sale of your home, it is important to make sure it is something very useful and something that will get the require attention of the buyer, of course it must be brand new. When selling a house the small things you will do can be the different between a sale and loosing a potential buyer. If you use the tips right it can make your house selling much easier.
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