You love your home. You remember the day you moved in. Every wall, every floor, every surface was just shining with promise and opportunity. A few years, a couple of job changes and maybe even a kid or two later and your beloved home starts to lose its lustre. Everything starts to feel faded, cramped and uncomfortable and your house just no longer feels like a home.
If this sounds familiar then you may need to upsize, but this can be a complicated, stressful and costly process. Here are some ways you can take the sting out of it…
Ask yourself “is now the right time”?
Only you know if it’s the right time to move to a larger property, but these are some scenarios in which families typically need to upsize. If one or more applies to you then you may struggle to remain in your existing home.
- Your family’s about to get larger. A new baby needs a space dedicated solely to them. While siblings can share a room, it’s generally better for their development if they have a room to call their own. Or perhaps you need to accommodate an elderly relative whom you want to give the dignity and privacy of their own space.
- Your income is growing- Perhaps your first home was bought when you were at the start of your career. A couple of promotions later you may want to move on to something bigger and better.
- You’re working from home- Telecommuters are on the rise, and they’re far more productive when they have a dedicated office space in which to do work and nothing else.
Preparation is the key
There’s a whole lot of information out there to help first time buyers, it’s somewhat harder to come across decent, impartial advice on upsizing. However, whether upsizing or buying for the first time, a lot of the financial considerations are pretty similar, and in both cases it’s important to make sure that you plan and prepare before committing yourself financially. Bear in mind that it may take a while to sell your property and you may need to keep your stuff in self-storage and let your property out if you are unable to sell straight away.
Calculating the costs
As you progress in your career and your financial situation improves, it’s easy to become overconfident in our ability to manage the financial commitments of moving to a larger property.
Your first consideration will (obviously) be your mortgage and it’s important to know how much the equity on your smaller property (combined with any savings you may have ) will afford you. A mortgage calculator is a useful tool to gauge much you can expect your monthly mortgage payments to be, but these are by no means the only costs you should take into account. Your council tax, utilities and insurance bill will likely increase to match your new property so it’s vital that you’re realistic about your ability to handle those considerations.
Finally, it’s important to consider the hidden costs of the move itself which might include:
- Conveyancing
- Surveyors and valuations
- Mortgage arrangement fees
- Estate agents fees
- Indemnity fees or
- Broker’s fees
