The Cost of Moving House: A Handy Calculator!

My husband and I have moved house more times than we care to mention. When we first moved in together, we rented a small two bedroom flat that was on the second floor of a block of flats. It served it’s purpose well, but I did miss having a garden. We had a balcony, but I never really went out there as it was very small.

When we discovered that we were pregnant with twins, we knew we needed to find somewhere bigger to live. The thing is that didn’t actually happen until our twins were 11 months old. We moved from our two bedroom flat to a two bedroom ground floor maisonette which had a lovely, albeit very open, front garden.

Courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net/artur84

Moving house can be stressful, but when you have children, it can often be even more stressful, especially when you don’t have any childcare! Having said that, I like that our girls were involved at every step of the way, every time we moved, as I think it helped them with the move.

I do think that having children when you move house means that you have to be even more organised. There’s already so much to do, but when you also have to ensure that you don’t pack certain toys away, and that you keep enough clothes, nappies out etc then it can often add to the ever growing to-do list!

The main factor for me when it comes to moving house is the cost. I didn’t realise how expensive it would be until the first time we moved, and it seems to get more expensive every time we do it! You have to think about buying boxes and tape to pack all of your belongings in. Then there’s the cost of paying for your post to be re-directed, as well as having your TV and/or broadband connection moved.

You also have to factor in things like the cost of changing suppliers for energy, electricity etc, and the cost of a removal van. The list is endless! I genuinely thought that a removal van would cost us around £50, but I was very wrong!

I thought the removal people would just load the boxes on, drive to the new house and unload them, and it’d be that simple. What I didn’t think about was the time it would take for the removal people to do that, plus when we discovered that all our things wouldn’t all fit in the van at the same, meaning an extra van trip was needed, the cost doubled! In total the removal van cost us £210 the last time we moved. A lot more than I’d anticipated paying for a removal van!

You also have to think about conveyancing fees, home buyers reports and stamp duty!

Who knew the cost of moving house would be so much! If only I’d discovered this cost of moving house calculator sooner! Created by Really Moving, it’s super easy to use by entering the buying price of your new home or the sale price of your home, along with how many bedrooms it is, whether it’s freehold or leasehold and the distance between properties. If you’re selling, you can also enter estate agents fees.

Once you’ve clicked the ‘calculate’ button, you’re shown your results. The great thing is, you can then go on and click to get quotes. You can compare conveyancing solicitor quotes, removal quotes and much more!

I love the calculator as everything you need is in one easy to find place. I wish I’d used this service sooner as I could have saved money on our removal van by shopping around.

Are you moving house soon? Why not give the cost of moving house calculator a go!