Saving up to sell

[gigi556]

We are thinking of moving in 2-3 years. We have a decent amount of equity which good and I know we can use this for down payment on next house, but I'm wondering how much cash we should look to save to for moving (ie what we might need to pay out of pocket rather than from the sale proceeds). Can someone help me outline selling/moving costs? I'm thinking solicitor fees (buy and sell), stamp duty, EA fees (are these paid in advance?), mortgage fees, survey fees, removals and possibly storage. What am I missing? What should we budget? TIA

We’re currently starting the moving process and have got the same list, though we add mortgage fees to the mortgage so they aren’t payable upfront.

Most estate agents charge fees on completion, so this could come out of sale proceeds, although may have some upfront costs for things like a video tour or EPC. The online types like Purple Bricks charge upfront, I believe.

I think solicitors fees depend on house price, but as a rough estimate I’m budgeting as follows:

£20,000 Stamp duty (obviously this depends on the price of house you’re buying)
£4400 estate agents fees (again, depends on the price you’re selling for)
£3500 solicitors fees
£1000 survey
£1000 removals

So I’m setting aside £30k for everything and hoping we might get some change! I haven’t budgeted for storage - will cross that bridge if we come to it!

We took stamp duty out of the equity, possibly also the fees.
Obviously ideal to have it in savings if you can but we weren’t in a position to do so and our house had gone up in value.

Ea fees and most solicitors stuff inc stamp duty comes out of the proceeds of the sale. Mortgage fee can be added to amount borrowed. So cash cash you need search costs - £400, plus also moving costs and storage if needed. Good to save money now though as in reality it does all add up.

We have paid £350 for searches (any excess will be knocked off final solicitor bill), £350 for survey, £100 ECP (ripped off by agent I know, but too much going on to think about shopping around!), 50 - 100 on paint, home decor etc (sold within a week so worth it). We've been quoted £500 for removals, with us packing everything ourselves.

Solicitor, stamp duty and agent fees (1% plus vat) will come out of equity.

You need to save for the upfront cost of the deposit which is basically 10% of the new property but you are likely to be able to use the deposit your buyer pays you towards that.

You are also likely to be asked for search fees up front. The rest can be paid from the equity in your house and your next mortgage.

It is a good idea to be less tight than that though and having enough to cover all the costs of the move or at least have 3 to 6 months living expenses.

We paid £1800 for solicitors fees, about £500 was paid upfront for searches but the rest was paid on completion. We paid £1200 estate agent fees which were paid at the end it was cheaper to pay upfront but I didn't want to pay anything if my house didn't sell. I spent about £200 on paint to refresh any finger marks etc which isn't necessary if you don't want to do that. We paid £450 moving costs and about £80 storage costs. You don't need a deposit if you have enough equity in your house to cover your deposit. So all in all roughly £5k I didn't pay stamp duty so you would also have to calculate that in if needed.