Selling and buying at the same time - Moving

Flugelhorn

I am always amazed as to how calm removals men are on the day, they arrive at the new property and the sellers are often still packing and packing and packing and nobody can do anything until they have finished, our removals men offered to go and help the sellers team once just to try to speed things up. It was Friday before a Bank Hol and we got in at 1700

MessedUp

if you hire  a removals company, do they usually do things like reassemble the bed ? or just put the parts of the bed in the bedroom? or dont beds get disassembled in the first place?

pinkteapot

Greatgimp said:

Completion time is often about 12noon to 2pm.

Quite often completion happens really early these days - often by 11am, and I've had it be 10am even in a long chain. 

The reality is that people generally load their removal trucks first thing, and everyone in the chain clears out of their old house by lunchtime. Meanwhile, legal completion has already happened so *technically* people stay in their houses a couple of hours too long. But, with how quickly the solicitors can push their buttons these days, that's inevitable. Then everyone moves on to their new house, picking up the keys en-route or from the vendor when they get there (assuming completion has gone through). 

It all goes wrong when some idiot in the chain think they can move out of their 4-bed house in a hired Transit van and is still emptying it at 5pm, causing their buyer to be sat outside waiting. Don't be that person, OP - try and be out for lunchtime. 

OP - this is all assuming you've exchanged contracts in advance, in which case the above describes completion day. With covid a lot of people have been doing exchange and complete on the same day, which is the same process but with no guarantee it's actually happening that day until exchange has happened!

Sanne

MessedUp said:

if you hire  a removals company, do they usually do things like reassemble the bed ? or just put the parts of the bed in the bedroom? or dont beds get disassembled in the first place?

It depends - some offer to take down and put up beds at an extra cost. We’ve never done it but the vendors of the house we bought did - she said later it was the best money ever spent.

Flugelhorn

MessedUp said:

if you hire  a removals company, do they usually do things like reassemble the bed ? or just put the parts of the bed in the bedroom? or dont beds get disassembled in the first place?

depends what you have agreed with them - they charge for various extras like packing / assembling etc 

Vasquez65

Removal guys don’t normally assemble furniture,  I suppose you can pay for a service like that though.   Beds usually go together quite quickly,  I’d keep any bolts and tools in my car on moving day to save faffing around looking for stuff and make it my first job after putting the kettle on. 

pinkteapot

Vasquez65 said:

Removal guys don’t normally assemble furniture,  I suppose you can pay for a service like that though.   Beds usually go together quite quickly,  I’d keep any bolts and tools in my car on moving day to save faffing around looking for stuff and make it my first job after putting the kettle on. 

Mine always have. 

Ask the question when you're getting quotes. 

Soot2006

Best money I ever spent was full packing & furniture service with my removal people. Van #1 was fully loaded up the night before and stored in their locked depot; then from 7am on moving day they came and van #2 and all our worldly possessions were packed and loaded by 10.30am. I got the keys from the estate agent at 14.00, called the removal guys and turns out they were already in front of new house. By 15.30, everything was unloaded and furniture built. Amazing ...  Then it took me about 3 months to actually unpack boxes and return the packing materials ahem!

pinkteapot

Soot2006 said:

Best money I ever spent was full packing & furniture service with my removal people. 

I say this every time it comes up on here. My first move after leaving home was with mates and a van. My second was with a proper removal company. The four or five since have always been removal company + full packing service. When you're spending thousands, or even tens of thousands, on the buying and selling process, the £400 ish for them to pack is incredible value. You can live in complete normality till the day before the move, then they swarm in and pack your whole house in a day while you just stay out of the way.  

iwb100

Having just done this with exchange and completion on the same day, here are a few tips...once you know the chain is close to completion, badger your solicitor daily for a suggested completion date. Offer your preference. Ensure you get a number of removals firms round to quote for you..,go for full packing service and furniture disassembly and reassembly...it doesn’t cost much more but is pretty much essential if you are trying to do it solo. When the removals quote...ask them what availability they have. Once you get a completion date book your preferred removers immediately. If it’s a local move, use a recommended local firm if possible...they will be more accommodating than one that perhaps has to travel a bit further back to their depot at the end of the day. If you go full packing, and seriously do, they will come the day before the move and pack all your stuff in boxes. Before they arrive fill a suitcase with stuff you will need and don’t want them to pack. Remember plenty of tea and coffee for your lovely removal guys..sugar and milk too. Then let them pack..keep your keys and medicines in your suitcase and just tell them not to touch that.

Everything else will be packed in boxes...make sure you keep our glasses and mugs and plates etc - again in your suitcase. Next day they will arrive first thing to pack up the lorry with your stuff. Whilst hopefully your solicitor is doing their thing. You will get the nod yours has sold and then you need to get out and hand keys to your estate agents or if they already have them leave yours in the house, but remember to lock it. 

Then you wait till you get the nod on your purchase. Now, you can pick the keys up. Make sure you know what the key arrangements are. If it’s all local moves...see if you can pick keys up off owners directly rather than having to go to estate agents. This speeds process up. You wait with key till new buyers pick them up and so on up the chain. It saves time but everyone has to agree. Then move in...let your movers do it, just tell them where you want stuff. Make sure you have a room allocated as a box dump...so for anything you don’t know where it needs to be they can just put it in there. Your movers by this point are tired and want to go home...so just remember that whilst they will move stuff around whilst you decide that it’s been a long day for them so try and be organised. Don’t unpack whilst they are unloading just direct them. And perhaps hoover....