Moving: Tips to Reduce Stress

Moving can be stressful for some, ranking right up there with being audited by the IRS. However, if you plan ahead and select an excellent team of professionals to assist you, much of that stress can be eliminated.

Selecting a Real Estate Company and a Buyer’s Agent
Deciding which real estate company and real estate agent to use in helping you search for a new home is more than just picking names out of a directory or an ad. You are about to make a very serious decision with far-reaching consequences and you will need an agent who is on your side! When looking for a real estate agent to represent you, look for an agent that you can trust, one whose honesty and reputation are impeccable. This is not the time for a slick sales pitch or an agent who cares more about their own bottom line than yours.

You will want an agent who:

• Is knowledgeable about the buying process.
• Will protect your rights and interests as a buyer.
• Has the experience to negotiate your final purchase price with skill and conviction with an eye toward getting you the best price possible.
• Will take the time to learn your needs and your dreams for your new home and community.
• Is a team player and pleasant to work with because finding a home can be a lengthy process; you will be spending lots of time together.

There are several ways to go about finding the kind of agent you want. More often than not, agents are recommended by friends, family members or business colleagues; however, if you are new to a community, this option may not be available to you. A second alternative is to call a real estate company that operates in the area where you plan to buy and ask to speak to the office manager. He/she will be happy to discuss your real estate needs with you and recommend an agent. A third approach is to search online for an agent’s website that appeals to you.

No matter how you find the agent, when you make contact explain that you are relocating and just beginning the process of selecting an agent to represent you. This is your opportunity to interview the agent. In fact, even before you call an agent, make a list of questions to ask. As the potential employer you are in the driver’s seat so don’t be shy about asking a pointed question like, “Why should I use you?” Formulate your questions to elicit information that is important to you. For example, if you hate using the phone and prefer email, ask your agent if he/she is computer savvy or similarly, if you are buying a lot and plan to build a home, ask the agent about his/her experience with new construction. Always interview several agents before making your final decision.

To get you started, here are some basic questions to ask an agent:

• How long have you been in the business? (Provides a rough measure of the agent’s knowledge & experience).
• How long have you lived in the area? (Will the agent be able to give you plenty of detail on schools, recreational facilities, shopping, transportation, civic groups, churches, area entertainment, etc)?
• Are you a full-time agent? (Will this agent spend the time with you that you require)?
• Are you a Realtor®? (A Realtor is bound by a code of ethics that protects you as a consumer. Not all agents are Realtors®).
• What is the absorption rate in your area? (An absorption rate is the period of time it takes to sell a home that is on the market. This information tells you about the agent’s knowledge of the local market.)

You can be as technical as you like, asking anything from “what is the difference between selling prices this year and last year” to “how many homes on the water have sold this year?” Again, your questions should relate to your particular situation.

Why Do I Need An Agent?
A dependable agent is a vital component in the process of making a smooth transition from one home to another. She will save you time, money and angst, freeing you to do the things that only you can do in preparing for your move. And, you will have plenty to do!

In addition to finding a new home, you will also need to consider such things as (1) a location that is suitable to your lifestyle (2) how to align your wants and needs with the reality of your budget and (3) the right school for your children. You should be able to depend on your agent to provide you with the information and resources you need to make these important decisions.

A professional agent will help you sort through the morass of information that you can expect to accumulate, keep you focused when you falter, make you laugh when you need to relax and act as a sounding board and resource center when you need to weigh various options. An agent can streamline the buying process, saving you time and sparing you worry, by doing a lot of the legwork for you too-going to open houses in your place; previewing homes for suitability; taking and sending pictures of homes that interest you; arranging appointments and tours when you visit; sending you community and school information; helping you locate a reliable local attorney and lender and giving you tips on moving and packing.

Your relocation agent’s job continues when you find your new neighborhood and home. Your agent will assist you in negotiating the best purchase price and be by your side to explain all the contractual details. Your agent will arrange and attend your home inspection; negotiate needed repairs with the seller; remind you of contractual deadlines; act as a liaison between you, your attorney and your lender; investigate material defects, liens and easements; keep track of all the necessary documents; accompany you on your walk-through of the house before the closing; attend the closing and be there to welcome you on moving day when the truck rolls into the driveway of your new home.

Teamwork
As you can see, your agent is an important member of the professional team you will engage to assist you with your relocation. With your agent’s help you will find your new home and community, secure a mortgage with a reliable lender, engage a local attorney to represent you, hire an inspection company and contact a reputable mover. These experts-agent, lender, attorney, home inspector, mover-are your relocation team; all act on your behalf and by your direction. Under the watchful eye of the agent in your new town, your team will perform their services freeing you to concentrate on moving out of your old home no matter how far away it may be.

Preparing to Move
If your old home has already been sold, you may have as little as six weeks to vacate the premises. This is not a lot of time to sort through years of accumulated stuff. If you were smart, you did much of the sorting and discarding before your house went on the market; however, now that you have secured your new home, you realize that you will need to rid yourself of a few more items. Where to start?

Organize, Sort, Discard, Donate, Sell, Pack
Sit down and compose an organized plan. Make “to-do” lists with associated time frames for the completion of various tasks. The first thing on your list should be to go from room to room deciding what you do and don’t want to keep. There should be 3 categories of things you don’t want to take with you: (1) throw-away stuff (2) giveaway items and (3) moving-sale items.

Work on the throw-away stuff first; you’ll have more room to maneuver. Go through your entire home, from basement to attic, including the garage and outbuildings, to identify items that you want to discard. If you start this task early, you can bag most of the items to be removed and put everything out, a little at a time, for your regular trash collection. You don’t want to wait until the last minute to dispose of your unwanted stuff though because the process of disposal can be a more difficult task than imagined. Items like batteries, old paint cans, rusted bicycles, ice skates, dilapidated lawn furniture and old grills will not be picked up by your refuse collector. Take what you can to your local recycling center. The remainder may disappear if you offer your refuse company’s hauler additional money to cart it away. The other option is to rent a dumpster if you don’t mind having one sitting next to your home for awhile. Now you are ready to work on the items that you want to give away. If you don’t plan to have a moving sale (tag sale, garage sale, yard sale), you will want to donate or give away everything that you don’t want to take with you. Since movers charge by the pound as well as the distance moved, there is no point in paying to move items you don’t want.

Clothing and some household furnishings can be donated to charitable organizations for a tax deduction. Day care centers are thrilled to receive toys providing there are no missing pieces, lead paint and the toy does what it is supposed to do. Some organizations will take old cars and bicycles as donations, even pick them up and take them away for you. If you have grown children, family or friends to whom you would like to give special furnishings, tools, equipment or clothing, call everyone who is interested in your offer early in the process to set a date and time for them to come, take what they want and get it out of your house.

At this point, you have either gotten rid of everything you no longer want or you have only those items left that you want to sell. Assuming you want to have a moving sale, you need to decide if it is worth your time to organize and hold the sale yourself or hire a company to do it for you. There are a number of factors that will influence your decision to do it yourself or to hire someone: (1) the amount of time that you have in which to move (2) the size of the sale (many items or only a few) (3) your bank account (does every penny count?) and (4) how easily you can enlist the assistance of others.

Holding a tag sale yourself is time-consuming. Set a date early (rain or shine) to allow you to reserve print advertising space and to get the word out by mouth in advance. You will need to have a covered space in which you can gather sale items together. A garage works well for easily moved items; hence the original name, “garage sale.” If you use a room in your home, you will need a system for keeping unwanted intruders out of the rest of your house and away from those things that you plan to keep. Unfortunately, not all tag sale attendees are honest and some will deliberately wander through your home feigning ignorance of the boundaries. To reduce theft, close off all rooms exterior to the tag sale area with either well-marked closed doors that say “KEEP OUT or sheets secured with masking tape. You will also want a friend stationed strategically at each opening to act as a gatekeeper. The way into the tag sale area and the way out should be the same, once again to prevent theft. Set up a card table near the entrance/exit. This is where the cash box and cashier will be located. Never leave your cash box unattended to answer a question about an item for sale or it will disappear.

After you have gathered all your sale items in one place, put a price sticker on every single article. People will still try to haggle, but at least they will have a general starting point as opposed to offering you $5.00 for an unmarked item valued at $60.00. Items should be easily viewed to prevent constant handling and to keep you from having to perpetually rearrange. To display items, use as many tables as you can beg or borrow from your neighbors. Clothing racks are a good idea too. If you are selling baskets, tubs or urns use them to organize other sale items and be sure to mark all with a price tag.

Arrange similar items together like a collection of candlesticks or kitchen odds and ends.

If you are under the gun to vacate or don’t have the energy or inclination to hold your own moving sale, hire a moving sale company in your area. These companies take as remuneration a certain percentage of the profit made by your sale and do all the work for you. Often, professional tag sale companies will see to ridding you of everything that isn’t sold and there are other companies that will inspect your unsold items and not only take the leftovers away, but pay you to take it away depending on the perceived value.

Many companies have limits on the size of the sale they will handle. If you only have a few items to sell, it would not be cost-effective for you to hire a company. Similarly, if you own valuable antiques that you want to sell, call several antique dealers and invite them to come for a preview before the moving sale. Take the best offer.

After you’ve cleared your home of unwanted items, it’s time to think about packing. If saving money interests you, do as much of your own packing as you can. To conserve even more, go to local stores and ask for sturdy boxes with closeable tops. If you decide to buy boxes, you can buy reclaimed boxes online for much less than new boxes and they will be delivered to your door. You can also purchase boxes at any moving store. You can buy packing paper either online or at moving centers. If you or your neighbors save newspapers, these can be used as packing paper for most items. Do not use newspaper on any item that might be permanently discolored by the ink like an alabaster plate or a lampshade. When packing your own things, here are a few hints:

• Err on the side of more paper rather than less. (Movers stack boxes).
• Put several inches of paper wadding on the bottom and at the top of each box and wrap items that will nestle up to the sides of the box with extra paper for protection from bumps.
• Smaller boxes are easier to carry, move around and stack than large boxes
• Seal and label each packed box with a numbered sticker and to assist the movers, write the name of the room in your new house where you want the box to go. Keep a corresponding list by number, room and a notation of the general contents. For example, on the box label write #17, kitchen and on your list write #17, kitchen, glassware.
• Don’t list contents on the outside of the box. No point in advertising what’s inside just in case.
• Write fragile in red on the applicable boxes.
• Stack packed boxes out of the way.

Complete the work on your to-do lists a little at a time on a daily basis. If you begin to feel discouraged and over-worked, try to focus on the positive aspects ahead of you: your new home, a wonderful neighborhood, an exciting area and community, a challenging new job, interesting new activities.

Preparing the Children
Keeping your stress to a minimum is important because your family takes its cues from you. Spend time talking about the move with your children; if they know what to expect they will be less fearful of the unknown. Listen to their concerns and be prepared to address them in a positive manner. Talk to them about their new neighborhood, where their bedrooms will be, what the backyard looks like, and what schools they will attend. If your kids like the beach or have special interests that require particular facilities like a pool or a hockey rink, let your agent know. She will send you information and pictures that you can share. In conversations with your children about the move, demonstrate excitement and enthusiasm. Stress that you are not leaving old things behind as much as you are looking forward to new things. Let them know they are about to embark on a big adventure. Your excitement is infectious and your children will notice.

Additional To-dos

• If you are doing some of the moving yourself, reserve an appropriate sized rental truck as early as possible.
• If you want to use a professional moving service, call several as soon as you have nailed down your moving date and ask for quotes before making your final selection.
• Collect copies of medical and dental records for yourself, your family, and your pet to take to your new health care providers.
• Contact your children’s schools, tell them your new address and ask that your their records be transferred to their new schools.
• Empty and close old safety deposit boxes.
• Complete a change of address form at your post office or you can do it online.
• Notify your friends, family, magazine distributors, credit card companies, insurance agents and any other entity that may need to reach you of your new address.
• Gather together warranties, appliance instructions, and contractor’s invoices (that you want to share) for the owners-to-be of your current home.
• Make a list of service providers that you use—lawn care, cleaning, trash, oil, sitter, dog walker, window washer—to give to your buyers in the event they want to use the same services.
• Think about eating up the contents of your refrigerator, freezer and pantry. Only continue to buy those things that you will eat right away.
• Close bank accounts you no longer find convenient. If you decide to keep an account open until after your move, make certain the bank has your new address. Consider doing your banking online if you don’t already.
• If your state collects property taxes, notify the town tax collector and your motor vehicle department of your new address.
• Fill out an IRS change of address form.
• Call your utility companies and advise them of the date you want to discontinue services in your name. Make sure you inform the utility companies of your new buyers because some utility companies will charge to reconnect the service if it is disconnected altogether. As a courtesy to your buyers, a seamless change of record is what you want, not a discontinuation of the service itself. Your buyers will not be able to put utility services in their names until you have contacted the companies first so be thoughtful and do it sooner than later. The same holds true for utilities in your new home. You will not be able to havesome utilities changed to your name at your new home until the utility companies are notified by the departing owners.
• Make travel plans if you are flying or driving to your new destination (motel/hotel reservations, plane tickets, etc).
• If you are traveling for more than one day to your new residence, put aside those items you will need for your trip and mark them NOT TO BE MOVED.
• Make arrangements for your pet if boarding or flying is a consideration.
• Stop scheduled home deliveries and services like newspapers and lawn care.
• Think about your houseplants. Will you sell them, give them away or transport them to your new home?
• Don’t forget to take apart items like lawn furniture and playscapes before the mover’s come.
• If you have small children, you may want to hire a sitter for your moving day or farm them out to friends.

Depending on your particular circumstances, undoubtedly there will be other items not included on this list that will need your attention like covering a swimming pool if you have one for example. Even though the list appears onerous and you are overwhelmed already, once you begin implementing several items on the list each day and packing a few boxes every day, the list will gradually shorten. As you cross off each completed item you will be reenergized with a feeling of accomplishment which, in turn, will spur you on to the next task. You may even be amazed to discover that once begun, the process of packing takes on a rhythm all its own.

Moving is an experience that doesn’t need to be stressful, but it does require organization and diligence. If you use your team of experts to your best advantage, prepare your family for what lies ahead, start the disposal process early, pack a little at a time and stay positive it will be over before you know it. Once you divest yourself of all that stuff that you don’t need you will actually experience a feeling of freedom. If you look at moving as a learning experience, an opportunity to start over, a chance to meet new people and explore all that your new community has to offer, you might even find it an exciting adventure after all.

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