How much is it costing you to move?

[snoopymug]

Houses in £425-450 price range. Selling and buying.

Stamp duty, estate agent fees, conveyancing and removal firm.

I'm just trying to get best and worst case scenarios. And trying to decide if it is mad to move house and then move house again in 5-6 years time.

IMO it’s worth the cost for that time frame.

Ours is priced slightly higher than yours but so far looking at 1% of sale price for solicitor, another 1% for the agent. About 20k on stamp duty and then I’m budgeting 2k for movers. Total pain in the arse but hopefully worth it.

Add in new curtains, carpets, furniture and repairs to the new house for things that don't surface in survey and I usually find a move costs in the region of £80k

It’s the stamp duty that makes moving again in the next 5 years a bit shit.

We've been planning to move for several years so not done things to our house we would have to do anyway. It's not in poor repair or anything like that but we'd want to change the kitchen and some flooring, shutters and maybe knock through a room and add dividing doors. And what we spent on this house would not increase the value of it.

Reasons to move are wanting a more peaceful garden, the space doesn't work for us now as near empty nesters with adult children who visit with partners in tow, I work from home and have nowhere in my immediate doorstep to walk out to (which is a big issue for me) the area is declining and I fear house prices will rise elsewhere at a higher rate.

DH and I can't agree. He'll move to make me happy but I don't want to make a stupid short sighted mistake.

Ah yes, I was hoping that would have changed as per the rumours and it would have made this decision easier.

Not sure I would want to ,ove and then move again in a 5+ year timeline! Too much expense and stress. Hoping house prices will just stagnant for next few years.

We didn't sell a house so no EA fees.

We paid £120 for a moving van to move the washer, dryer, sofa, two armchairs and a large spring double mattress. They disconnected the washer too and it was insanely heavy, never would have managed by ourself. Seems 'cheap' at first glance but we only moved 130 meters down the road though. We moved everything else ourself though.

My solicitor fees where £1,141, thats:

• purchase fee
• transfer fee
• SDLT fee
• searches
• land registry search
• land registry fee

We didn't need to pay stamp duty as both a first time buyer and buying under the threshold.

The RICs survey was £600.

So for us as FTB buying a low priced house it was only £1,861.

We had lost half of that again on a house that fell through (at least £800) before buying this one. We actually had 3 houses fall through but luckily we hadn't spent big money on the first one (only the cheaper basic land searches etc... which where like £15 had been done when the sale collapsed) and the last one we where gazumped almost immediately (within days) so no money had been spent yet. I'm still a touch bitter over losing that much money for nothing through no fault of our own.

About £20k. This is our last move ever.

Budget 35k for your move. No harm in shopping around and see what you can get. You could move to a cheaper area and cover the cost/pay off the mortgage?

Thank you. I think my idea is to move somewhere we could potentially add a bit of value to.

We could just as possibly move and then not move again. We're at that stage of life where everything is up in the air. It would seem like a no brainer to stay put for several more years, but COVID got in the way of us moving originally and then our dc's ages and stages of education kept adding 2 more years. If I'd known then we'd be doing another 10 years in this house I'd have fixed some of the niggles.

Anyway, thanks. My problem to solve I guess.

Last time I moved stamp duty was €70k on a €700k house and legal fees were about €10k (Spain). Just be glad you're in england - here estate agents charge 5% standard as well so moving is bloody expensive!!

We’re selling a £300k house and buying a £500k house. Our costs are:

£3,500 legal fees (covers both transactions)
£3,600 estate agent fees (1% + VAT)
£15,000 SDLT
£600 movers

There have been various other costs like skips, bulky waste removal, boxes etc so we’ve probably spent about £600 on that.

So overall £23,300.

Well, it would have been if our purchase hadn’t been delayed forcing us to break the chain, sell, put our belongings into storage and rent in the meantime.

Similar price house.

0.75% plus VAT agent
£10,000 plus VAT legal for buying and selling
£2,000 plus VAT moving costs buying and selling
£1200 survey plus VAT
plus stamp duty

North of England.

Why are my legal costs so out of kilter I wonder!

Is your estate agent bill included in these and you have double counted perhaps ?

No @Mum5net , I've been quoted £5k to sell, £5k to buy in writing, I am not joking. Solicitor I have used many times before, house sales, purchase, wills, divorce, etc..

Maybe they have made a typo. I will check.

But these are just quotes @WetWetWetWetWet and you don’t have to go ahead with them ?

Just dont underestimate the costs of even a "turnkey" property because you inevitably end up spending money on things like curtains/ blinds, light fittings etc. There will be minor snagging that the vendor just kind of lived with but you might not want to (e.g there are two switches for a light and one doesnt work, the toilet flush is glitchy, a door doesnt catch properly or has dropped).

@AllJoyAndNoFun our last property was ready to move into. Still loads of things that annoy me!

Appreciate that, the quote is from the firm my family have used for generations, I'd like to use them if possible, I reckon it must be an admin error.

Thanks. These are useful things for me to be realistic about.

Yes, definitely check. My combined fees for selling a house in Scotland and buying a house in England, both in a slightly higher price bracket are under £5k, so I think a further £5k for that warm feeling of loyalty would be a stretch too far for me.

I wouldn't move just for 5 years. You would likely lose money. Why not just make one long term move?

We're restricted by jobs for 5 or so years but not entirely sure this area is where we want to stay to grow old.