How do you move house?

[Monsoon92]

Okay so a bit of a stupid question, but I need it spelled out slowly to me to understand all the steps! Me and DH have agreed to move up north (currently in Portsmouth). I'm a teacher and he's an engineer. We own our current house, and have lived here for 3 years, so paid off a tiny bit on the mortgage. A couple of questions...

How much should we save up before planning to move? Including solicitor fees etc., but also a safety net.

Should we look for jobs before putting our house on the market? Or is it the other way round? As a teacher I can have quite a long leave period, but DH only has two weeks. What works best with these jobs?

We have 2 dc, at the moment 8mo and 2 years old. So potentially one will be at school when we move. Do we apply for a school place once the move is confirmed? What if that doesn't work?

I'm being told rent first and then buy a place, but I'm scared of going back into renting and then not being able to get another mortgage. Is this a good idea, or would you buy straight away if you felt like you knew the area?

I think that's all my questions for now, but I'm sure I have more! Thanks for any answers.

Oh, and do you have to have your house on the market before looking at other houses? The system is so confusing!

There's a few layers to this so it's a bit more fiddly than most

Usually you need to at least have your home up for sale, if not sale agreed, before viewing. Its fairly fast moving at the moment. However in your shoes I wouldn't move until I had secured employment.

Are you moving to a specific area of the North, near family? If so, have them give advice on schools/best areas etc.

Then once you know which area, start looking for work that would be accessible from those areas.

Thanks for the reply. We don't have family up there so no recommendations, but I've got an idea of what areas I like the look of.

So in theory, DH could get a job to start in two weeks while we're still putting our house on the market? I guess that's why we need a savings buffer!

I'd try for

DH applies for jobs, when he gets one, rent a small 2 bed near job & schools for 6 months or so.

use address of the new flat to get school places for kids

spend weekends / holidays all in the new location to get to know the area. view properties etc.

put current house on the market & offer on new houses. If things work, you can buy & sell in one go, but you'd have the flexibility to put lots of stuff in store and live in the 2-bed northern flat for a few months if needed.

If you have a rough idea, and it's a full relocation lock stock, would you consider renting an air bnb for a fortnight there and going for a "holiday"? Just to see what it's like?

You need to narrow your area a bit, what’s included in your definition of ‘north’?

You say your husband is an engineer but does he work in an industry that will impact his place of work ie aviation, nuclear, specialist manufacturing?

Savings for solicitors and removals say 5k

Can you live on one salary or do you need buffer in case it takes you a year to get a job in the right location ?

It can easily take 6 months from house on market to the whole chain moving - so you need rental money to cover from whenever the first of you gets a job until whenever the sale and purchase completes

We are currently in the process (with 3DC). I first agreed a transfer in job with my existing company (otherwise first thing would have been job hunting for me- I am main earner so no job -no move). We then put our house on the market, accepted an offer and had an offer accepted on an onward property. Instructed solicitors and financial advisor and survey. I have contacted local schools and nurseries to get an idea of waiting lists/places etc but won't formally apply until we have exchanged (or are otherwise in New location). Ideally we sell and purchase at the same time- but if we sell first (or need to be in New location for work before) we will stay with family (or rental), put stuff in storage, and apply for school/nursery places on that basis, and then move into new house when that completes. In terms of budget, we have an allocation for searches, solicitor, estate agent, stamp duty, financial advisor, survey and moving costs plus a contingency for storage and Airbnb (which we with otherwise spend on stuff for the new house that would be nice but not necessary!). Some of this is savings and some equity from the house we are selling. My husband is trying to transfer with work but it might not happen and we don't need his salary to pay the bills so he can look for a job when we get there (which makes things less complicated). We are moving back to an area we have both lived before so no issue for us in terms of knowing where we want to be.

Thanks all, it feels a bit less overwhelming reading some of the responses! Well could probably manage without my income for a little, so I guess less pressure there. We'd be looking at places like Walton in Chesterfield. We're planning on going up for a week this summer to see what it's like day to day. We won't be moving for at least another year or two, so plan on doing that regularly to get a good feel for living there.

We moved from London to the countryside last year. I found a job first, then DH. Put London house for sale and rented in new area. Now mid purchase in the new place. Property market mad everywhere but houses still cheaper than London (switching from a 3 bed maisonette 1400sq ft to a 3000sqft 4 bed house with a large garden). Worth noting that some mortgage providers are quite reluctant to loan to people in the first year of a job- might be worth speaking with a broker. We got through as decent deposit and relatively high earning.

With two jobs and DC and moving across the country, you also need to divide and conquer a bit – one of you goes up to look at houses and nearby nurseries, schools, etc, and the other trusts their judgement. My parents did this three times, going up for solo weeks/weekends in a B&B, viewing everything; and more than once one or the other of them moved into a house they’d only ever seen in pictures.

Things to save for: stamp duty - tricky unless you know your budget, which you won’t till you sell, but this is the chunkiest amount of money. Solicitor cost for both the sale and the purchase. Estate agent fee, usually a % of the sale. Survey – budget for more than one in case a house falls through, or first survey suggests a specialist survey. Searches and random fees and ridiculous charges for filing bits of paper, plus VAT on it all. Removals – if you can save for packers too, it makes life much, much easier. Worth its weight in gold.

The good news is the majority of the moving costs are paid on completion. You only pay surveyors and removals separately, and obviously give solicitors a deposit to start searches, but everything else (even estate agent fee) gets totted up and billed to you around exchange, as a “you’ll need to give us all this to complete” bill. But it means you can keep saving even after you’ve put an offer in.

Timings wise I think you’d go on the market in spring to (ideally) move in the summer, before the school year begins, though you’d need to sort the school place using a rental address as suggested above.

We’re about to do the same thing but thankfully with one remote job in the mix so less tricky, and only halfway across the country. I’m bricking it

If you need the two incomes to get the mortgage on the new house the lender will want to see at least a job offer before they lend too