Moving home is an incredibly expensive proposition and one that involves perhaps the single most expensive purchase you will ever make. The cost of the property isn’t the only thing adding to the overall expense here though – you’re also going to be paying for a number of services, tax for the privilege of moving and a range of other hidden costs that you probably haven’t even considered yet. Here then we will look at a few ways you can reduce the cost of moving – if only just slightly.

Choose Wisely

Obviously the easiest way to make moving home cheaper is to choose a cheaper home to move into. This sounds obvious, but unfortunately it’s not something many of us can do easily without compromising on quality. The solution is to take your time and to look at as many properties as possible rather than going for the first one you like – you may find that you find a good bargain, or that by moving to a slightly different postcode you can save a lot of money. Doing your research can also help you to find the cheaper areas to move etc.

Negotiate

When you put down an offer on the property you want be sure to negotiate somewhat on the price and to see if you can’t get a reduced rate. This is an important way to save money and if you try then you won’t know – remember that if they turn down your offer you can always just offer to pay higher again.

Remember the Investment

Bear in mind that this should be an investment, and rather than looking at saving money now, you should be thinking about saving money in the long run by making more from the sale of this property. Though you may want to look at cheaper properties, make sure that these are properties that are likely to go up in value, or that you can easily improve over time so that you will make more money back when you come to move.

Do it Yourself

When you move home you will be using a variety of different services to help ensure that this all goes smoothly. Some of these services you can do without to save a little money such as removal services – use this opportunity to sell a lot of your stuff and then get a friend with a van to help you remove the remainder.

Get Cheaper Services

Other things though you won’t be able to skip like your settlement agent or your surveyor. What you can do though is to shop around and make sure that you get the very best service for a good price. Don’t sacrifice the quality of the service, but don’t pay over the odds.

Get a Cheaper Mortgage

Your mortgage is going to eat up a lot of your money for a long time to come, so getting the best APR and the best repayment scheme will make a huge difference to your finances. Again you should shop around and negotiate, but there are also things you can do yourself such as working to improve your credit rating or agreeing to put down a larger deposit – perhaps with help from your family or friends.

This guest post has been contributed by James Hewitt, a real estate broker that provides cost-effective solutions for commercial real estate sales and ways to reduce cost of moving home.