So we have planned this move for over a year now. We have been thinking about what we needs to do, where are the schools, can we afford it, what areas are best. We have been over it time and time again. The plan came together, we would do it in stages. Stage 1 - Sell our house, Stage 2 - Move in with Mum and Dad, Stage 3 - Rent a property in Kings Lynn, Stage 4 - Buy a property in Kings Lynn. We agreed this would be the best plan, it would be controlled, give us as little stress as possible, ensure we were in the area before buying to get a good idea for ourselves, keep the travelling down to a minimum. That was the plan.
The plan seems to have changed now. I think it started a few days ago when Helen said it was a shame to have to pay out for 3 removal costs, one from London to storage, then storage to Renting house, then rented house to purchase house. Well I had totally forgot about budgeting for the last two removal costs. I had only considered the first one. Having rung some companies in Kings Lynn, a local move of our size would be around £500 to £600 each , so in essence over another £1000 I had not planned for.
So we then started thinking about maybe moving the stuff straight into a rented place. After all this would be easy to find, we could look one weekend after exchange of contracts, we had the money already and were not too fussed about where we rented or what we got. We contacted some agents. It seems however there are not too many rented properties available. I think you get used to living in London where there just seems so many. Also something else I had not budgetted for, the renting ageny takes an admin fee. I had assumed the person renting the property paid that. There are also costs for credit checks, regardless of the fact we have and will be paying cash. All in all the additional costs could total £300. Oh well not a major problem but does eat into the money a bit.
Then last night we were looking at properties for sale. There were lots of new ones we had not seen before. Good ones as well, in our price range and below and in the areas we were looking at. So we started thinking, could it be the time to buy. Maybe the amount of properties available come the late Summer and Autumn may not be as much as there is now in the Spring. We may miss out on something good. So now we are considering, once we have exchanged, we could have a couple of weekends up there looking at properties to buy. We would still have the storage costs but these are not great, but we would cut down on one removal cost which is around £600 but on top of that we would have £5000 available again which was money we had put aside for 6 months renting.
So now we need to think what is the best plan. Frankly I do not know. If we could buy a property making maybe only 2 trips up there then that would be good, but we would have to rely on our local friend to advise on the areas. Also we are not sure what happens with Kirsty's school. The areas we are looking at are nearer to schools which are not preferred by us. However she is bright and it is only for two years, she would then be right near a good secondary school and have no problems getting in there.
So much to think about, consider and decide upon, I think I am finding out that this process is going to have to be fluid. I am not sure I like that, for me it needs to be one route, one process, here we have a situation of choices at each stage of the process. So I think we will have quite a lot of talking to do over the next few weeks.
Still at least that takes my mind of the selling side of our process. The agent very kindly rung me yesterday to say our buyer had been on the phone asking about removal firms. The Agent knows how much I worry so thought this news would keep me calm for a few more days knowing the buyer was still very keen and focussed on moving. It did indeed do that and was a nice touch, apart from of course the initial panic of seeing an incoming call from the Agent which I was not expecting. My first thought of course was on no bad news.
Oh it's great to be me.
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