Buying/Selling costs - am I forgetting anything?

[CheungFun]

Hi everyone,

DH and I bought our first home a couple of years ago (2 bed flat) and we are looking at moving and buying a 3 bed house.

Am I forgetting anything with the buying/selling costs?

Estate agents fees for selling our flat
Paying for a survey on the house
Paying for solicitors fees on selling our flat and buying the house
Paying stamp duty on the house
Possible mortgage fee
Moving costs e.g. Hiring a van
Decorating costs for the house

Many thanks in advance!

Stamp duty is a biggie if you are going over the £250k threshold

BTW, your name is one of my favourite dim sum dishes, you have now made me hungry

Hehe! I struggle with making up names so went for a food based one! I love dim sum!

The house we are looking at was last sold in 2008 for 265k and is currently being marketed at 260k. We are hoping to get it for less than £250k to save some money on the stamp duty, but I'm not sure why the owners are selling yet as it's been marketed a few times since 2010 but not sold, so I'm wondering if the current owners aren't budging on the price? Usually in our area the properties sell very very quickly.

We are going to view the house tomorrow so I will ask the estate agent some blunt questions and see why it hasn't sold yet. On paper there's no reason as DH actually grew up in the same road and we know the area very well. The house seems to be in good decorative order and I can't imagine that there would be any major issues on a survey.

The only downsides are that the garden is small and there isn't space for a dining table in the kitchen, so the dining table would have to be in the lounge. Maybe for a 3 bed house this puts off some potential buyers as they would rather have it in the kitchen or have a separate dining room?

only a couple of small things:

searches - not huge fees but £200 odd depending on where you are.
post redirection - £30-odd for 3 months per name.

obviously your costs will go up; more council tax, garden equipment and maintenance, whatever needs fixing/changing on the new house.

The management company / freeholder will probably add charges to sign any paperwork re leases