Nearing completion, When should I start packing?

[SugarandSpiceLatte]

Hi, I bought a house mid December and im hoping to move in by the end of March as my current tenancy ends then. I am currently at the contract stage on my house sale but my vendors own house sale is further behind. Does this seem likely that I’ll move by then? My estate agent says that ‘no doubt it’ll be a March completion’ what does this mean? Should I start packing things up?

How long is the chain? Basically, it doesn't matter where you are unless the whole chain is there too. If you don't know, it might be worth asking for an update on the chain.

Also: noone is tied to anything legally until exchange, and the chain all exchange contacts at the same time. Until you get to that point, nothing is certain at all. The best advice we were given was not to give notice until your solicitor is saying it's all go, as, unless you have somewhere else you can stay, you may end up homeless (this is on the proviso that a. You can afford crossover time and b. Your landlord is willing to give you extra time).

Quite often it feels like you are close, but something crops up to delay massively, other people in the chain are slow or someone is away. We had a 3 house chain (ftb-us-sellers- other empty property) and it took just over 6 months from chian being completed last year.

Always best to ask your solicitor- they are working for you. If you are bottom of the chain, the EA is not our friend as they are paid bybthe sellers to say whatever it takes (within reason and legislation) to see the sale through and will often make noises about things that are totally out of their hands.

Depends how much stuff you have.

We moved a couple of years ago after 30yrs in the same house.
Started sorting out and packing a full 12-months before exchange and then (at our request) had 6-months between E&C.
Admittedly we did have some outbuildings to sort out plus OH had his workshop so this is probably a slightly extreme example.
When we had viewings, boxes were clearly on view (showed we were getting ready though). 😉