How much does it cost to sell/buy a house?

[springaroundthecorner]

Getting divorced and house is worth around £370k. When it is sold how much is that likely to cost? I have no idea even what agents fees are, never mind solicitors fees etc. Despite being in my 50's this is only the second house I have ever owned and the first in this country so I am a house selling novice.

I intend to rent for a while but what would the costs then be of buying on top of the actual price when I do decide where I want to live.

Hope this is the right place to post. I wondered legal or money but plumped for this! Thanks.

Agents fees differ, but are likely to be between 0.5% to 1% of sale price, so something up to £3700 if you sell for £370k. Solicitor will be a few hundred if its a simple sale. You'll need a removal van and movers?

For buying, you'll need solicitors again for a few hundred, a survey (£200?), then stamp duty on whatever you buy (1% if it costs £125k-250k, 3% if it costs 250k-500, 4% if it costs 500k+).

Thanks. That's not as bad as I thought although I can see that if the sale is easy it might feel a bit expensive in agents fees!

There is the debris of a family of 5 for 14 years to clear out so I think I might need a fair few trips to the tip (sorry recycling centre!) and a skip or two.

My friend was telling me the other day her father had decided it was time to clear out her mothers clothes as she passed away nearly two years ago. He found a company to come and collect them and got £25 so perhaps I can find some things that I consider junk that I can sell?

I think it cost me about £15k to move with EA fees, solicitors fees and stamp duty

What were the values of the two houses Patti?

I sold for 425k (think I paid 1.5% in EA fees though - was a couple of years ago) and bought for 275k (moved out of London to a cheaper part of the UK). I did move a long way though so removal costs were about 1k

And you can definitely sell stuff - I sold a few bits on ebay and we sold the contents of my gran's house for £200

Did you get the removers to pack or did you do it yourself? I imagine that makes quite a difference to the cost? I only intend to move locally but it all still has to leave one house and into another.

They did most of the packing (had a 3YO at the time) so yes, they spent a day packing and a day moving - if you only need moving, that will be a lot cheaper.

And if you move locally then you might be able to move a lot of stuff yourself especially if you're planning to rent first. TBH, most of your stuff will probably have to be boxed up anyway to put into storage so it should be a pretty easy and quick job for the movers

Thanks Patti, very helpful advice.

Good luck - you seem very sanguine about everything

I'm learning to be with this divorce malarky, it's the only way to cope.

Have some back - sounds like you deserve them :)