How to move house on a budget
It pays to be prudent when you move house as the selling costs can make your eye's water. Follow these house selling tips and you'll save a shed load of money
First let's look at the moving expenses that you are likely to incur. Estate agents fees can certainly make you wince if you’ve been all British and failed to negotiate sales commission down to a reasonable level.
Then there are legal fees, mortgage arrangement fees, broker fees, and removal expenses.
Estate agents fees
Negotiating an estate agents commission down to a reasonable level is a must if you are to put a sensible lid on your house selling costs. Depending on the value of your house, you should negotiate fees down to 1% + VAT, and if your house is particularly expensive, negotiate the agents commission to something more like 0.75% + VAT.
Nearly all agents will negotiate with you. They’ll give you a list as long as your arm of reasons why their fee has to be so high. But stand firm and you will get the deal you want. There are plenty of estate agents to negotiate with.
Even with commission capped at 1% + VAT, you will still face one mighty bill to add to your selling costs.
Alternatively you can sell your house privately which will drop your selling costs to as little as £99 including VAT.
Legal fees for selling a house
This is an area where your costs can be reduced dramatically, by employing the services of a good conveyancing solicitor. Not only will they save you money, they will process the sale quickly too.
DO NOT USE A GENERAL PRACTIONER unless you want the sale to take forever. A solicitor who deals with births, deaths and marriages, and handles property sales on a Friday will slow the process to a stand still.
This is a top house selling tip: Use a specialist conveyancing solicitor and insist that your buyer does the same. Conveyancing fees should be in the region of £300 + VAT. There’s no need to pay solicitor fees of £1,000 or more unless you have money to burn.
Mortgage fees
Arranging a new mortgage is a deceptively expensive business as you will potentially face mortgage broker fees, a mortgage arrangement fee, the cost of a survey and redemption charges on your existing mortgage.
First things first: Do you have redemption charges? If you do you must check if your mortgage is portable. A portable mortgage can move with you, which will either get rid of the redemption charge all together, or reduce the amount you have to pay if your new mortgage is smaller than your current one.
If you use a mortgage broker, they will almost definitely try to charge you a broker fee which could be anything up to 1% + VAT of the loan amount. My top house selling tip for this is: Just say no. I haven’t met a broker yet who hasn’t agreed to reduce their broker fee to nothing. If they won’t agree – just find another broker who will.
Another top tip: Don’t go to your bank for a mortgage, unless they are offering you a mega deal. It’s unlikely that your bank can offer you the best mortgage on the market.
Removal expenses
My top tip here is simple: Use a reputable removal company to help you move house. Their fee will be worth it compared to the fees your chiropractor will charge you, and the cost of replacing furniture that you’ve damaged.
The best saving you can make is to throw out your junk before you move, and not after.
