Critical Moving Hacks That You Wish Your Agent Told You About
Selling your home can be stressful enough, let alone thinking about the actual process of physically moving your family and all your stuff. Between keeping your place spotless for showings, going back and forth on negotiations, and impatiently waiting for the buyer to remove conditions, you’re probably exhausted and feeling pretty overwhelmed. And now you gotta move???! But don’t worry, we have you covered to ease your stress and workload. Here are five critical moving hacks we share with our clients that you can do ahead of moving day so you can handle it like a BOSS! We’ll let you in on our little secrets secrets!
DON’T MOVE ON YOUR POSSESSION DAY! Wait… what? That’s right. If you can help it, leave possession day solely to meet your agent to do a walk-through. Why? This will avoid trying to handle delays, juggling installers and movers, in case you need to tackle any minor issues prior to moving in. Leave the movers, cleaners, installers, construction guys for the next day. While we are at it… avoid Fridays, the 1st or the 31st, or the day before a long weekend as your possession day. In fact, if the seller is flexible or you are in the driver’s seat to pick your possession day, select a Wednesday or Thursday. This will ensure that your lawyer isn’t backlogged with other possessions so there are no delays. And in the rare occurrence, if there happens to a big issue, your lawyer can help you handle it before they are gone for the weekend.
EXPRESS ADDRESS WORKS WONDERS. Start tackling necessary address changes prior to your big move. One place to do this is expressaddress.com. It’s a one-stop-shop for you to change your address for multiple utilities, change your address for your driver’s license, and other various places.
MEET EVERYONE AHEAD OF THE BIG DAY TO AVOID DELAYS AND STRESS. You don’t have to wait until possession day to tackle all of these major things at once. In fact, we provide a checklist of things you can do ahead of time and what you should have completed a week before the big day. Connecting with your lender, home insurance provider, and lawyer well ahead of the game will ensure smooth sailing for possession. One thing to tackle as soon as you hear that your move is firm, is to price out and book your mover if you are using one. These guys book up quickly so get this is done as soon as possible. Other installers like SaskTel, Bell, Access, alarm companies all book weeks out, so get on those as well.
HAVE A PACKING SCHEDULE. If this is your first move, don’t procrastinate. It’s our experience that our clients grossly underestimate the time it takes to sort, pack, and clean their existing home, leaving the unpacking to be a huge disaster as you run out of steam. You’re spent from the stress and the workload, but if you break it up little by little, the job isn’t so bad. One way to get ahead of this is to use a packing schedule. You can tackle things as far as three months out if you have a long waiting period. Week by week, you can do a little bit at a time.
DE-CLUTTER WELL AHEAD OF THE GAME. This is the best advice we can give to even the most seasoned mover. You see, moving is so much easier when you sort through your entire home before you even list. Sounds counteractive, right? Isn’t that more work? It can seem like that, but believe us, once you go through your possessions, you will have organized and packed things you don’t need in the interim, like seasonal items or sentimental photographs, as well as finding stuff you no longer need. You can sell, donate, or toss the things you don’t need and actually end up moving less stuff. Your move day will take less time because you’ll be more organized and have fewer items to physically move. It will actually save you a lot of money as well. This de-cluttering process will also make it easier to keep your home clean for showings, and may even help you sell your home faster! We feel that this method is so effective that we have a designated staff member who can help our clients with this process. Jessica, our Listing Specialist, has been at this for years and has recently taken her role to the next level, helping people simply their moves by de-cluttering. She is the only in-house stylist and de-clutterer working at a brokerage in Regina. Her experience will help your next move a breeze!
If you are looking for more moving tips, feel free to reach out and connect to one of our agents!
