You
have signed the pile of paperwork, secured a mortgage, and have the
signed deed. The real estate agent has plastered a "sold" sign in front
of a house that will soon be yours. All that's left is packing your
bags. Before you move into your new home, though, here are a few things
that you need to do.
1)
Get rid of as much as you can. Hold a yard sale, call up local
charities for pickup and get those trash bags ready. If you have
purchased a property, the last thing you want is to fill it with years
of past clutter. Use the opportunity of packing to weed out unnecessary
items. Anything that's broken, rarely used, or no longer useful should
be discarded. Start fresh in your new home.
2)
Start saving boxes, newspapers, and packing materials as soon as you
sign the mortgage. As soon as you know you will be moving, start saving
up so that you can pack everything you need to take with you. Chances
are that you will need more packing materials than you think, so start
saving early. It will save you a lot of money on packing materials, and
recycling rather than buying new materials is better for the
environment as well.
3)
Get a professional to clean your new property. A professional cleaning
of your new property is the best way to know what's really going on
with your new home. That grungy countertop that you thought needed to
be replaced may only need a really good going over. That stairwell that
you thought needed a new coat of paint may actually look super after
all the years of grime have been polished off. A good professional
cleaning can save you hundreds or even thousands of dollars in
renovation work.
4)
Schedule repair or renovation work for about four to six months before
you move. Contractors sometimes take longer than promised, so before
you move make sure that you get any renovation or repair work
completed. It's often a lot easier for contractors to work without your
furniture and possessions in the way, and by getting renovations done
ahead of time you can move into a property that is just as you want it.
5)
Take care of necessary moving errands a few weeks before you move.
Three to two weeks before you move into your new property, set up new
telephone, electricity, cable, gas, water, and other utility services
and tell your current utility services to cut off everything at the end
of your expected moving day. Set up dates when deliveries (of
newspapers, magazines, dry cleaning, and laundry) will be cut off.
Visit the post office and get a change of address card filled out.
6)
Re-key your property. For your security and peace of mind, make sure
that you get new locks on all your door well before you move in. This
is something you might want to do as soon as you take possession of the
house. |
