The finish line at the end of the process of buying or selling a home is the possession day (or closing day if you like). It's generally a very busy time for both the buyer and the seller. Both parties are packing, meeting with lawyers and coordinating account transfers like gas or TV. It can all become very overwhelming if you don't have a plan in place. To help you make the transition as simple as possible here are a few tips:
1.) Be mindful when you choose your possession day. The first and last day of the month are the most popular moving days and behind that is Fridays. In some cases you may not have much of a choice but if you do, you can avoid those days. I always suggest a Thursday because that allows one business day after as a "buffer" in case anything goes sideways.
2.) Plan ahead! Book your movers as early as possible. Call your utility companies well in advance too. Some will charge extra if proper notice isn't given to end a service or they may not be able to transfer your services on the day of your choice if you leave it too late.
3.) Don't cram it all into one day. If you have purchased new appliances for your new home don't plan for the delivery on the same day as your move. Also if you are taking pets to a kennel or kids to a family member's home do it the day before (or a few days before). You don't want to be juggling too much on moving day and end up making it more chaotic than it needs to be.
4.) Avoid moving on possession day. The possession time on the contract is 12:00pm, so if you are a Seller you may have a lot of work to do that morning. For Buyer's, if there is any glitch in the transfer of funds for the sale you don't want to be sitting outside the house paying movers by the hour while you wait for the key to get in.
5.) For sellers, it's all about Karma. Do unto others as you would have done onto you. Think about the way you leave the house, you wouldn't want to move into a filthy home so give yours a good clean before possession. For buyers, this goes back to #4. No one wants to move into a dirty house so plan for time to give it a clean before the movers come. Hopefully the Seller has left it in great shape and you don't need to but if they haven't moving into a dirty house won't be fun.
We are rolling out a new service where will be email out packing lists to our buyer's and seller's and on the seller's list we will be including a list of what to leave behind. Some things like keys are obvious, but it's easy to forget a garage door opener in the car or the mail key. We hope this will make the possession day and moving less stressful for our Clients.
