Moving home can be quite a stressful thing to do. People say that moving home and getting married are the two most stressful things people go through in their life. There may be some truth to this, but there are loads that someone can do in order to mitigate this stress. Planning is the key to this, and putting time into making sure this is effective is really important. Without planning effectively, not only could you find this incredibly stressful, but you may find yourself in financial difficulty or even worse, the move may not go ahead.
Below we have listed some things that you may wish to consider in advance to help this go as smoothly as possible. Read on to see how we’re breaking down what your highest priorities for saving money in your new home are.
Repairs
When you move into a new home, things may look fantastic, but you never know what is looming and may need a lot of investment. This could include things such as dampness in an area that needs to be dealt with quickly before it spreads or broken windows/doors. It is really hard to get an understanding of all these potential issues prior to you moving into the home as some of them may not be immediately obvious. Although (depending on the type of purchase you went through) you may actually be covered for a period of time, this time may lapse, or it could be a complicated issue the previous owner takes no accountability for.
It is therefore recommended that you either have a comprehensive insurance policy that may cover these types of eventualities, or you have a stash of money kept aside in the bank for this. Without this, you may then find yourself with a repair that you cannot afford, which could directly lead to a health and safety concern.
Insurance Cover
Home insurance is legal in some places as a mandatory requirement to get funding from the bank. Therefore, it is important to check this out with your lender (if you have one). The level of home insurance, and the cost of a home insurance policy will be dependent on a few things. The first one is fire and theft. This is the most common type of insurance and in the event of a fire (and your house is damaged or completely razed to the ground), you will get this covered. In terms of theft, this will cover items stolen in the event of a robbery.
The cost for home insurance should not be overlooked and the more that you are looking to cover, the more expensive the insurance policy will be. When getting the quote online, you can make these alterations quite easily and then see the cost of the policy change with that. There will also be “excess” options in this policy. What this effectively means is that you are making a claim there will be a deduction in the amount of money you are paid out. This can be altered to suit. An example will be, if you are claiming for theft and have an excess of $1,000 but your claim is $10,000, you will get a $9,000 payout. The lower amount you choose on your excess (down to zero), the higher your policy amount will be.
Refurbishment
Even if the house you are moving into is decorated to a remarkably high standard, most people will want to “make it their own.” This could include simple things like wallpaper or painting, or it could even mean a complete structural change to a room or layout. Doing this all costs money and it will cost even more if you are calling in the help of professionals. Most people will tackle basic decorating on their own however this alone can be stressful and also compromise on quality.
There is no point spending loads of money on your dream home to then decorate it to a low standard in order to save a bit of cash. In terms of structural changes, this could be significant. Examples include things like garage conversions or knocking down (or adding) walls. If you are going to these extremes, you may also need the approval from the authorities, so it is important that you do not go running immediately into DIY mode without checking this out in advance.
Mortgage Payments
It may seem very obvious that you will need to keep money aside for mortgage payments but there is a particularly good reason we are mentioning this specifically. Right now, in most areas, inflation is on the rise and with inflation on the rise, interest rates have also been rising. This then means it costs more to borrow money. Depending on what mortgage you have, this could mean that mortgage prices could rise, and this rise could be quite significant. Every time this raises, your monthly payment will be affected. There is also a cost of living crisis that is well known as a result of the Ukraine invasion.
This is affecting food costs and energy to name a few. As a result of this, the increased mortgage payments alongside the cost of living crisis could mean that you are finding it difficult to make your mortgage payment. Unfortunately, as much as the banks will hear your point of view and make some concessions, they will expect you to keep up with the mortgage payments as much as you can. If you are finding this difficult then it is important not to default and to discuss this in advance with your bank. Defaulting could affect your credit score but also your house could be removed from you. Keeping a stash of money for a “rainy day” to cover this sort of eventuality should be planned into your moving home budgets.
Conclusion
It’s important to have a rainy day fund nearby for any of these instances which can range from being a want that will be fun to plan and budget to surprise problems that are expensive to fix.
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