This is definitely not recommended unless you are missing the stress of your job!
There are reasons you might want to move, such as wanting to move back to the town (city!) where most of your friends live and to the church where you feel at home, as I did. If moving is just because you feel like a new place, then consider carefully before leaving the place and friends you know and facing the stresses of moving house.
My Experiences
I put my house on the market in the April before I retired and had an offer within a short time. I therefore went down to T and found a house I liked – and within a few days the people who made the offer withdrew it!
I did get another offer – 2 months later. The original house I found was then withdrawn from the market, but after 3 trips to T in 6 weeks and viewing 7 or 8 properties, I found a bungalow and had the offer accepted. Many thanks to my friend K, with whom I stayed a couple of times and her husband C and also friends I and S who viewed properties with me.
I then waited……and waited……..and waited……and waited…….. while the person who wanted my house tried to sort out problems with some land which failed to appear on the deeds of her house, I gathered. She withdrew her offer in November.
There were no more viewings of my house until January – November and December are not good times for house selling – people are thinking Christmas. Eventually, at the start of February I got an acceptable offer. These people then started putting on the pressure to move. I had lost the bungalow by then, so after 3 more trips to T (more thanks to K, C, I and S) and viewing 10 properties (including the bungalow which came back on the market!) in mid-March I found a house I liked and had my offer accepted. Hurrah! But not time to get too excited yet…..
There were surveys, forms to fill in, searches for the solicitor to get organised and for me to read, removal firms to get quotes from, completion dates to discuss and numerous phone calls to the solicitor (who never seemed to be there!) to see if he was actually doing anything. And gaps in the middle when there was nothing to do but worry…..
On the exchange date, my solicitor was away and there was a “locum” and they couldn’t find the signed contract! It was eventually found and I was then told that I needed house insurance from the exchange date – that day! I managed to organise that. Then there was gas, water, electricity, council tax, B.T…….. for both the old and new properties, to tell about completion dates and the removal firm to finalise. Then change of address and forwarding of post, cleaning the house and finally moving in the second week in May!
Not the end…… When I got down to T they would not release the key, as the money hadn’t come thorough. That is fairly standard. After telling the removal men what was happening and two hours waiting, I could get into the new house. Yeh!!! Only 13 months!
I used Pickfords as the removal firm but I would NOT recommend them. Two pieces of furniture scratched (one not repairable and the other repair not good) and they turned up earlier than they said they would!