You are ready to buy a new house if you can answer the following questions. Do you have a steady, reliable source of income and do you know who your boss is? This is important in determining both which side of the bread the butter is on and how much of it you will get to eat! If you have a good record of bill payment and few outstanding long-term debts, you increase your chances for success with the purchase of a new home. Do you have a down payment and enough to pay a monthly mortgage bill plus additional costs? If you do, then maybe you are ready.
After they explain the “earnest” money that has to be put in escrow once you decide on the home of your choice, (usually from 1 to 5% of the purchase price and no one bothered to tell me, I might add), there is the physical aspect of the moving process. Calling the movers, arranging for estimates and boxes, boxes and more boxes! If King Richard would have bartered his proverbial kingdom for a horse, mine is even cheaper; the price of cartons, bubble-wrap and significant doses of aspirin and valium.
Besides the boxes, you need wrap, wrap and then some more wrap. Whether you choose newspaper, bubble wrap or anything else, prepare for trouble, especially if animals are about and watching your every move. Cats will jump into empty cartons and try to puncture bubble wrap, as it makes a popping sound when they walk upon it. (Dogs can chew it and I can only imagine what birds and other creatures might do.)
Then there’s the sticky matter of selecting a moving company. Use reliable bonded movers and shop around, even if you don’t have a great deal of time. None of them are cheap, but there is a great deal of competition and many are reasonable considering the loads they are asked to carry. Get three estimates and use the middle-priced one.
Once you are in your new home, vow never to move again. The experience will be fresh in your mind and if you make that promise to yourself at that moment you will probably never renege on it. Owning a home has many benefits that might not seem visible during the moving process. They may only become clear after the dust has settled, the phones and cable are installed and the movers have left town, so to speak.
Now that the nightmare is almost behind you, take a look at all those boxes that you still have to unpack. What’s that odd shaped sort of green one over there in the corner? Do you remember packing that one and why did it just move an inch or two over to the right? If you think that’s your biggest problem, look out that new living room window of yours. Do you see that strange looking man in the black cape with a hunk of garlic hanging around his neck? He’s waving to you with a fanged down-home, friendly smile. He’s your new neighbor and if you think he’s strange, I’ve heard his family is…well…worse!
Maybe it’s not too late. My house is still available. Are you interested? I can call my broker before 7 tonight. I can’t do it any later because after that time they don’t take any incoming calls from the asylum!
Do YOU have a crazy moving story to tell? Please share.