How much does it cost to move?

[Weekendsarehellish]

I bought my 1st home a few years ago and from around 3 months in I knew I don't want to stay in this home or this area any longer than I have to. The issue is it was a renovation and sucked all my savings from me but it's now in a really good condition, I have a fair amount of equity in it as a result and similar properties sell before they even get the board up, so I know I can get rid of it quickly.

But realistically what are the costs of buying your second home? I'm a single parent if that makes any difference.

Biggest one is stamp duty depending on the price of your new house. Ours is £11k

Solicitor for the sale and the purchase approx: £3k

Survey if you get one: £300 - £800 ish

Agents fees: around 1% + vat of the sale price

Movers: we are paying £1200

I think those are the big things, it's a lot! We are using the equity to pay for it all thankfully. (In the south east)

On the other hand, we spent:-

£800 on conveyancing for the sale & purchase

£0 on agent fees (Purplebricks)

£50 hiring a long wheel base van for the day

Plus stamp duty

1.unavoidable costs stamp duty or land tax in Scotland, search fees, land registry fees

2, solicitors for purchase and sale you can negogiate ( it is the same work generally regardless of house size so don't fall for a % of sale price onlin conveyancing is cheaper but it can be difficult to speak to a real person this may not matter if everything straightforward but if an old house with burdens or rights of way or anything difficult I would go with someone you can actually speak to
estate agents vary as above selling a more expensive house at 500k is not twice the work of a 250k house so negogiate again for fixed fee but you do need good photos and floor plans

3, moving costs depends on distance you can hire a vehicle and box everything yourself or the opposite you can get the movers to pack every little thing and unpack at other end

4, surveys reports etc depend on what your mortgage company require, they are only interested in getting their money back so if mortgage is only 50% of value they will get money back unless it actually falls down so they are less concerned about a leak in gutters , you want a 95% mortgage and every tiny problem matters

I seem to miss every single stamp duty holiday that’s ever been offered. I refuse to pay it so I’m waiting for the next one.
But that’s your biggest cost as mentioned

Depends on the price of the purchase. We've bought 2 houses and never paid stamp duty.

If you don't have a lot of stuff and can get help, you can move for the cost of van hire (and a crate beer and a carvery lunch for 2 mates in our case).

Solicitors, search fees and estate agents a few thousand pounds?