Moving house is an arduous process no matter what order you complete the tasks in. There's all that packing, searching the real estate listings, mortgage hunting, negotiations, and carting heavy boxes around. There's no way around any of it. However, there is a way to minimize the stress on your family and your pocketbook. Next time you're looking at properties for sale, follow our step by step guide to your next move. Hopefully you'll have a cheaper, happier move the next time around.
Step 1
Clean and repair your home. This will help your real estate agent to find interested buyers when the time comes to sell and increase the amount your home is worth. At this stage you should start packing your belongings, especially personal ones like photos, to make the house look more available and prepare you for your move.
Step 2
List the home. Hiring a real estate agent is always a good move at this stage, because listing and selling a home yourself is beyond the capabilities of most people. Keep the house clean during this time for open houses and buyer tours. You may also want to try staging your home to appeal to even more buyers. How does home staging work exactly?
Step 3
Get pre-approved for a mortgage. Take your budget and expectations to the bank that holds your previous mortgage to negotiate terms or apply to other institutions you think would give you a better deal.
Step 4
Search for a new home. This step can be conducted concurrently with step two. Make sure you've got two different real estate agents for each step though, because your agent will be too busy selling your current home to help you look for the perfect property as well.
Step 5
Sell your existing home. When you accept a buyer's offer, make sure the closing date isn't so soon that you and your family will have to put all your things in storage and live out of a hotel or apartment while you're still looking for your new house.
Step 6
Put in an offer on your new home. It's always best to have the sale of your old home go through before you close on your new home. This way you'll have a lump sum on hand for the down payment on the mortgage on your new real estate. Now is also the perfect time to schedule a home inspection to do a thorough inspection of the property and be sure there are no hidden problems and potential dangers.
Step 7
Finish packing and hire a mover to take your belongings from your old house to your new one. You can also enlist the aid of friends with pickup trucks, but it is much faster and less strenuous to hire professional movers. And their company will actually take responsibility for any items that get broken, which you can't expect from your friends.
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