Complete but move in later?

NameUnavailable

I had to exchange/complete on the same day, but I wasn't able to collect the keys from the agent until a week later. I didn't move in until about a month after that.

The property was already vacant when I offered on it. If people were moving out I guess I'd want to make sure they had left and taken all their stuff with them.

SensibleSarah

I moved gradually over a few days - from rented to first bought property. Picked up the keys as soon as they were available and went to see the house for the first time in many months (what should have been a straightforward purchase was of course, not at all) as I honestly couldn't really remember what it was like. I had viewed dozens of very similar properties before having my offer accepted on this one and they had genuinely merged into one in my mind - so I couldn't visualise it clearly at all by the time I got the keys.
 
The house had been empty for a couple of years but all services were still connected thankfully, so apart from getting a heating engineer in to get the boiler up and running again (it wasn't playing ball with my efforts), I just did meter readings and had a quick look around to remind myself what I had bought. Still haven't changed the locks nearly 12 years later! 

Over the next few days I moved bits and bobs over (I didn't drive at the time) thanks to friends and their cars, then got a removals firm in to do the big stuff while I sorted the pets out with my visiting mum and her car. Probably took about a week to get everything out of the rental house and clean etc. Took years to tackle some of the unpacking of boxes at the bought house  

If I'd have been able to afford it, I would have done some of the decorating and other work on the new house before moving in, but I couldn't afford rent and mortgage at the same time so just had to live with it. So much harder to do things like that when you're living in it!