How Long Does It Take to Move to a New House on Average?
About 40 million Americans moved each year from 2015 to 2020.
For context, there are countries in Europe that have a fraction of this number of people in their total population. For instance, Denmark has just under six million people in its population!
So how do all these Americans manage to make the move? And, more to the point of this article, how long does it take to move?
In this guide, we’ll run through what to expect in the moving process. We’ll also let you know how to figure out a realistic timeframe for moving.
Let’s get to it!
The Selling and Buying Timeline
For most of you, there’ll be a selling and buying timeline to deal with for your residential move. What we mean is the time it takes to sell your current property and the time it takes to buy your new home. And, bear in mind, these are timelines that often overlap.
Now, if you are being realistic with your selling price, and how much you’re willing to pay for your new home, it takes around ten weeks for you to be able to complete the move. However, if you play it tough with your sale price and want to get a real bargain when buying, it can run into several months until you’re successful.
A general breakdown of the timeline is as follows: You stage your home for a couple of weeks. Then, you list and value the home in about a week. Finally, you have viewings for a few weeks and then a buyer would sign the contract and you sell your home.
While all this is going on, you may be house hunting as well. Let’s say you find the right home. Well, most of you will have to wait for the sale of your old home to complete so you can raise the money to pay for the new one. So, it’ll be a minimum of ten weeks before you can buy the place and move in.
Also, if you are upscaling, you might have to wait for mortgage approval too. This can take anywhere between two and four weeks. It could be the case you’re shifting over your mortgage to the new home, and the same timeframe applies.
What About Renting?
If you’re a renter and moving into a new rental property, it may take anywhere between two weeks to a month or more to break your current lease and move. You might also have to wait for previous tenants of the new place to move out, or for the landlord to complete renovations.
So the longest part of moving as a renter is breaking the lease and getting out of your old place. On the flip side, there are many landlords out there that would be happy for you to move in on the same day you show interest in a new place. But, you might be able to break a lease early.
How Long Does Packing Take?
We mentioned earlier that a reasonable and smooth timeline for selling and buying is about ten weeks. A realistic and manageable timeframe to pack should be around two weeks.
So, you might think, start packing at say week seven or eight out of the estimated ten weeks, right?
Well, the issue is that you might get lucky and the selling and buying timeline could be just eight weeks in total. This poses a real problem for you where packing is concerned!
A good idea is to start packing up the stuff you don’t use in everyday life right away. Also, pack up any rooms you don’t use and get all your packing essentials ready like boxes and bubble wrap way ahead of time.
One of the best moving tips is to make a habit of doing a little bit every day right when you decide to start the moving process. Then, if things move forward quickly, you won’t be in such a rush to pack everything up.
Should You Hire Professional Movers?
To hire or not to hire professional movers?
If you don’t hire any, make sure you’re organized well in advance. And, make sure you’re capable of driving a large truck for all your belongings. Then, of course, you’ll need a good friend to come and help you out for an entire day to do some heavy lifting and strategic placement of belongings into the truck.
Most people who don’t want to deal with all logistics of moving hire professional movers. A team will come to your home and spend much less time shifting things out of your home and into their truck.
They’ll also be able to do all the awkward and back-breaking lifting while you can sit back sipping on cocktails if you like! But seriously, hiring movers lifts a huge burden off your shoulders when it comes to moving homes, as you’ll have enough on your plate as it is. If you want to learn more about moving professionals, here’s more info.
The Distance to Your New Home
One final consideration you have to factor in is how far away your new home is from your old one. If you’re in the same neighborhood or city, it should take a day for all your stuff to be packed up in a van and then placed into your new home.
However, long-distance moves often take more than a day to complete. So get ready to pace yourself!
The How Long Does It Take to Move Question Answered!
How long does it take to move? If everything runs smoothly, it should take around ten weeks or so to complete the full process. But many variables can change, so be prepared for a shorter or longer process.
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