Category:Planning
We survey a few thousand properties a year and hear the same five regrets. None of them are exotic.
1. Accepting a quote without a survey
A price given over the phone is a guess based on a bedroom count, and a bedroom count says nothing about a loft full of records or a garage with a workbench in it. When the crew arrives and the truck is too small, the price changes on the day, and you are in no position to argue.
2. Under-declaring the insurance value
Basic liability is calculated by weight, not by worth. Add up what it would cost to replace the contents of one room and you will usually find the number is larger than you expected. Declare the real figure.
3. Packing everything
Moving costs are driven by volume. The books you will not read again, the exercise bike, the four spare duvets — all of it is billed by the cubic foot, twice if it goes into storage. Sorting is the cheapest hour of the whole move.
4. Leaving the utilities until the week of
Meter readings, final bills, broadband installation and mail redirection all have lead times, and broadband is the worst of them. Booked six weeks out it is routine; booked six days out it is a month of tethering to a phone.
5. Not being there at the start
The first thirty minutes set the tone for the entire day. Walk the crew through the property, point out what is fragile and what is not moving, and confirm the plan out loud. After that you can leave them to it — but if nobody does the walkthrough, every decision gets made by somebody who has never been in your house before.
None of these are about effort. They are all about doing something small earlier than feels necessary.
