moving house

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we are moving house in 4 weeks time to a completely different area of london. Thus this will be a big change for our ds who is nearly 2. It will involve changing childminder also (2 days a week only). Just wondering if anyone has some top tips on making the transition as smooth as possible.

ok mabs- positive experience. We moved from London to Devon last year. House was on market for about a month before selling at a price we were very happy with. tidying bit was a nightmare especially as I had just had ds2 by c-section- but agents were good.

Becuase ds2 got an infection we couldn't get down to Devon to house hunt so we moved in with parents down here for a bit. Property market was going mad- we were just about to give up on the first day house hunting when an agent rushed out and collared us in this stree. We'd been to see her 20 minutes before when she had nothing suitable but a sale had just fallen through and the house was going back on the market at pre-xmas price (it was now April- and prices had rocketed). We went straight up to have a look round. It was our dream house, our immediate offer was accepted and now we don't have to move again! Ever! It's now a year since moving in. I still haven't unpacked totally though!

We moved the year before as well- and selling that was a nightmare- we had a very flakey buyer who kept changing her mind!

I've got another positive story. Put our flat on the market end February, got an offer at the end of April. Exchanged contracts last Thursday, and we're completing and moving this Thursday.

I think we were just very lucky to find a decisive, no-chain buyer who was as desperate to get in here as quickly as we were to get out! All that tidying up was driving me up the wall. And all that cleaning too... AAAGH!

In the meantime, though, I didn't believe that selling the flat could possibly go so smoothly or quickly, so I didn't go house-hunting (am moving into rented) until the week before last, and found the house of our dreams in a perfect location (5 mins walk to DS's nursery) as only the third place we saw. VERY VERY LUCKY! Am now in a sort of daze, contemplating moving on Thursday and have done nothing at all. I'm back at work tomorrow too! I'm not too daft, though - have arranged packers from the removals co (top tip - don't move without packers!) and I'll just be leaving all the preliminary stuff to them.

I'm sure that stuff will all go smoothly for you too MABS. If you lose the really nice house - perhaps there'll be a better one along at the right time...

Thanks for the positive stories... gives me encouragement. Will keep you posted, though i'm sure it'll be a long and boring saga

well, here's the latest... Found a house which we love and dh has 'discovered' we can buy it without selling ours immediately. We may rent our current house out if there's no sale by July time, but we have a planned completion date of 18 July on the new one, and all the finance is in place. I'll keep you posted.

Well, we got another update from our builders today - yet another delay. This time due to smoke damage after a fire in the underground car park, which they had previously told us hadn't caused any problmes. We are now to be delayed for about 4-6 weeks, so we won't be moving 'till July now - 11 months late.

sorry to hear that Clairandrich. stressful eh?

We finally exchanged yesterday, complete and move june 20th. sounds easy but we've been waiting since October and are currently commuting 3 hours per day. Maybe it's a north west thing?

can i ask a silly question? once contracts have been signed is there no going back. it has all taken so long to go through for me that now it's actually happening i'm feeling all panicky and wondering if i,ve done the right thing. help

dazed, I presume you're in England (if you're in Scotland I have no idea I'm afraid) if you've only signed the contract but not exchanged then you can pull out. If, however, your solicitor has exchanged contracts and given you a completion date (ie the date you are to move) then that's it I'm afraid unless you can afford to lose your deposit and pay costs etc to compensate the seller (or buyer). Have you exchanged (agreed a date to move and the price etc, the solicitor 'exchanges' contracts with the seller's (buyer's) solicitors?

thanks megg. no we haven't actually exchanged them yet. i had found a house that i loved months ago but then seller pulled out at last minute, so i'm feeling very half-hearted about it now.

Its a lot of money to be wasting if your heart really isn't in it. You must bear in mind as well that if you've paid for survey/searches to be done you won't get that money back and also the solicitor could charge for any work he's undertaken on your behalf. Good luck with looking for a new house if that's what you decide to do.

Oh Ks, poor you, hope you have a better day tomorrow and that you sell your flat soon!

sorry to hear that KS - our viewing didn't bother to show up today.