First Time Buyer Moving by Heather Hilder on October 15, 2020 “FIRST TIME BUYER” FTB MOVING – PROFESSIONAL or DIY? The day comes for every first time buyer when it’s time to decide on the actual logistics of the move itself. What are your options, as a first time buyer moving? Do you engage in moving with the professionals or DIY with the help of a few friends and family? After getting your mortgage agreed, finding the right home, putting in your bid, having it accepted, going through the process of solicitors, surveyors and so much more, you will finally exchange contracts and have a completion date agreed. So that’s all the hard work done and dusted, right? Not quite. The day you pick up the keys to your first property will more than likely be the day you move in too. That can bring with it all kinds of logistical quandaries to solve. Professional Moving – how much??? When you’ve gone through your ‘sling or keep’ process (see our in-depth guide HERE) you will have worked out which material possessions you’ll be taking with you. You’ll then have a good idea of how easy (or difficult) things might be. If you’re moving out of rented accommodation you might not have too much in the way of existing furniture, but you’ll no doubt have more personal items than you realise. If you’ve got more stuff at your family home then you’ll be looking at a slightly more complicated process than most ‘house to house’ relocations. The other aspect of ‘how much’ is the cost or using a professional removal service. As a first time buyer every expense will need to be anticipated and accounted for. So leaving a quote from a removal firm to the last minute isn’t a good idea. Also, those guys usually book well ahead, so you won’t want to be at a disadvantage by leaving things to the week of your move. Moving – Friends and Family When you’re buying your first home you’ll no doubt find that friends and family offer different kinds of help in various ways. If you haven’t actually got a great number of physical items to move from one place to another you might be able to get away with not having to use a professional removal company at all. One thing to remember is that if you do employ a reputable removal firm everything will be fully insured. This can obviously take the edge off any moving mishaps, whereas if your mate or your dad drops your prized 42″ 4K screen it could be a totally different matter. DIY Move Whether you’re giving a room a new coat of paint or getting stuck into some more serious home improvements, as a first time buyer you’ll be acquainting yourself with those three ‘DIY’ letters sooner or later. If you haven’t bought a ‘fixer-upper’ your might not think this, but believe me it’s true – DIY comes to us all at some point in our home ownership journey! And we all start with the First Time Buyer moving, whether into a home of our own, or a rental property. So it can sometimes be a good idea to start at the beginning and do a DIY move. Hiring a van is much cheaper than a full-on removal service. Even if you’ve got a fair bit to move, you can take it at a relaxed pace and do a few trips, as long as the distance isn’t too great. It’s also a really easy solution to the problem of moving things from more than one place.
