Are you truly ready to move house?

There comes a time in everybody’s lives when they start thinking about moving home. This might be from rented property into your first owned home, upsizing or indeed downsizing. When we meet house hunters keen to buy a new home, it’s important to us to be confident they are genuinely keen to move, rather than simply ‘having a look’ at what’s out there. Those not sincerely ready to move, even if they genuinely believe they are, won’t find a property that suits them, however hard they look.

While some people are house hunting for purely practical reasons – they have to relocate for a new job, or have one child too many for their current home, for example – for others it’s a more emotional process, as they fall out of love with their current home and want to investigate potential happiness elsewhere.

Here are the top five signs we recognise that prove you are ready to move house:

1. You have looked into how much you can spend on a new home, so are very sure of your maximum price range.

If you’re considering moving home, the ultimate controller of this will be finance. For those buying with a mortgage, it’s sensible to use an online mortgage calculator in the first instance, which will give you a good idea of how much you can safely borrow. Following this, should the answer be encouraging, a meeting with a well-respected and rated financial advisor is your next step. If you know the area you’re keen to move to, speak to the estate agency for recommendations, as they will have personal and ongoing experience with a trusted advisor. If you’re downsizing, with your mortgage already paid off, a meeting with a financial advisor is also strongly recommended to help you plan your finances to support the lifestyle you hope to lead going forward. Speak with Mark at Bespoke on 0161 529 9110.

2. You have become a midnight browser.

For some people, browsing the properties for sale online is a guilty pleasure with no intention of progressing. For others, it’s a sign of itchy feet. Do you look at other properties for sale near you, to assess how much your home might be worth? Do you spend time looking at homes in detail – assessing if you’d need to decorate, working out how your furniture would fit, checking out the route to the nearest bus stop, looking at the quality of local schools..? If so, you’ve stepped from dreamer to planner, and your next step will be to visit estate agents in your chosen area to discuss the realities of the property market there. Online browsing will only take you so far, a conversation with an expert is vital.

3. Your home starts to feel less like home.

If your home is starting to feel too small, or too big, and doesn’t offer that emotional welcome home hug it once used to, you are falling out of love and getting ready to separate. Other signs will be a list of DIY or decorating jobs you simply can’t raise the energy to start, or have to push yourself to complete.

4. You are increasingly frustrated by the ‘downsides’.

When you chose your current home, it ticked every (or the majority) of you must-have boxes. However, now when you look around, these must-haves have evolved, and you now have a new set of criteria you’re judging your home by. For some, it’s no longer important to be close to local bars and restaurants, or right on the bus route, or to be close to a road network. Now you want a garden, a home office, good schools within walking distance. Or in reverse, those seeking to downsize want a smaller outdoor space, neighbours, shops within walking distance, etc. Your lifestage governs your needs and wants. If this is happening, take some time to write a list of both those things about your current home you love, and those things that frustrate you. Next write a list of the new things you;d like in your life, and rate them in order of importance.

5. Finally – you know you’re genuinely ready to move when you spend more time looking at other people’s homes than your own.

Do you find yourself assessing your friends’ and family’s homes? Do you look at their storage, room layouts, how they have fitted their home to suit their lifestyle? Do you think – ‘oh, I’m having that’ when you see their kitchen island, or bi-fold garden doors, or wood burning stove? Do you imagine which room you’d make into a playroom, or how you’d lay out a new kitchen? If so, it’s time to take your imaginings and make them a reality. And your first step is to talk to a trusted, experienced and rated estate agent in the area, or areas, in which you’re considering buying and discussing your options.

We love meeting potential home buyers – we love the hope and excitement that comes with taking such a huge decision, we love the showings of potential new homes and the discussions that ensue, from ‘I’d change this’ to ‘Oh, I love that!’ and finally, we love the moment where we hand over the keys to smiles all round.

Call 0161 882 2233, to get in touch with the award-winning JP & Brimelow Chorlton & Didsbury Ltd team that can assist you with booking a market appraisal.

Eddie – 5th January 2024. (Image used from JP & Brimelow marketing department).