What is your budget for your new home? How much can you afford to spend on the property? This is an important question to answer, and it’s one of the very first things you’ll need to work out when you decide it’s time to sell your current property and move on or when you think you’re ready to buy for the first time.
However, there are some costs that many people forget about in the excitement of moving house, and you should definitely add them to your budget. If they aren’t, you might find that the ideal house you have found isn’t so ideal after all because, due to these forgotten costs, you can’t really afford the move. Read on to find out what some of these costs are so you can be prepared when you need to be. Remember, these are no hidden costs, they should come as no surprise, but they are so easy to ignore when you’re focusing on your budget and the mortgage repayments you need to make.
Admin Costs
When you’re buying a house or other type of property, you’ll find there are plenty of costs associated with becoming a homeowner, and failing to understand or remember about these costs can have a significant impact on your ability to move at all. It’s not just the mortgage repayments you need to be able to pay for – there are plenty of upfront costs too.
One of these is the down payment. Typically this can be anywhere from five to 25 percent of the purchase value of the property, and it’s the money that you need to be able to provide so that your mortgage company can organize the bulk of the borrowing you’ll need for the rest. Although there are such things as one hundred percent mortgages, these are very hard to find, and if you can get one, the interest rate will be much higher than a standard mortgage because the lender is taking more of a risk.
Conveyancing costs are another issue to contend with. Sometimes you can add these to the mortgage, but sometimes you’ll need to pay this upfront. They include costs for the solicitor to progress your house sale and may also include a property survey.
Depending on where you live and how much the house is worth, you could also be liable for a large tax payment; this can sometimes total tens of thousands of dollars. Now you can see why buying a property isn’t always as easy as you might think.
Moving Costs
Somehow you’ll have to get your furniture and possessions from one property to the next. Whether you choose to do this yourself and hire a truck and find some friends or family to help with the heavier stuff, or you hire a moving company to help you and do all the hard work for you, this will cost you something. Of course, the further your new place is from the old and the more stuff you have, the more this is going to cost, and if you’re moving to a different country, it could be very expensive indeed. Here’s a great article worth checking out, that goes into debt of the costs you can expect to occur when moving, depending on your situation.
If you’re looking to save money, you might think that the cost of a truck is a much better option than an experienced moving company, but in many cases, this is a false economy. The initial cost might be less, but when you factor in the time it will take you to do the job by yourself compared to the cost of hiring a recommended moving company who can do it all so much quicker, you may prefer this option.
The Yard
So you’ve moved into your new home and you’re happy with the layout and the feel of the place. Then you look out of the window and realize that your backyard (and possibly the front one too) needs a lot of work. Maybe this was not required when you first came to view the property, or maybe you just didn’t know what was needed. But whatever the situation, if the previous owners left their – your – yard in a bad state, that means you may have to pay out to get it fixed and one of those common “moving costs” that are easy to miss.
This won’t be a cost you will have considered for the most part unless you knew in advance that the yard needed some work to be done, and even then, you probably won’t have taken the time to get estimates and prices for a landscaper or contractor to help you out.
The Journey To Work
How much does it cost you to get to work right now? If you work from home or you’re moving closer to your place of work, then you’re either not going to be spending any more than you are now, or you might even be saving money.
However, what if you’re moving further away? Even if it’s only a mile or so further out, that means an extra few miles a week in your car, resulting in having to fill the tank with gas more often. There will also be more wear on your tires and the engine, so you might have to pay out for repairs more often too. If you take public transport, what are the costs from your new place? Are you on a different train line or bus route? What impact is this going to have on your monthly outgoings?
Although you are sure to have considered how long the journey to work will take in your new house, especially when compared to your old one, did you do the math and make sure you could afford the additional charges? This is another one of those easily overlooked “moving costs”.
Conclusion
It’s crucial to have a budget in place when you’re moving; if you don’t, you won’t know what properties are in your price range and which you should ignore. However, it’s just as essential to ensure that you have taken these additional moving costs (and others) into account. When they are added together, they can be very expensive, and having to pull out of a house sale or, worse, move and then discover you can’t afford to live there, is very upsetting for all involved.
