A First-Time Home-Buyers Checklist

 Buying a home is one of the biggest investments you'll ever make, and that's why we've put together this list to help you understand what it takes to get started.

Give yourself time to pack, plan, move and unpack.

It’s not always practical to plan for every eventuality, but if you can give yourself some extra time before the move date and pack your belongings (and don't forget to start a digital archive), it will save you both money and stress in the long run.

Give yourself plenty of time to plan your new home. You don't want to be rushing or stressed out while moving, so give yourself plenty of room in your schedule. Moving is stressful enough as it is without trying to do everything at once.

Notify your landlord

Give your landlord a forwarding address. It’s important to notify your landlord about your move, especially if you need to give him or her a forwarding address. A brief letter or email will suffice, but make sure to include the date of your move and where you're moving. This will help ensure that any postcards or other mail sent from your old address during the transition are forwarded.

Research moving companies

Researching local moving companies can be a daunting task. It’s not as simple as calling up the first company you find on Google or Yelp and asking for a quote. You should take your time to compare multiple local moving companies, get quotes from each of them, and make sure to get references from past customers or employees as well.

The best thing you can do is ask for referrals from friends who have used movers before—they know who has a good reputation in the area and will be able to tell you which companies are worth hiring.

Buy packing materials

When moving, you have to consider what types of packing materials you need. Oftentimes, you will need the following:

Buy packing tape

• Buy boxes and other moving supplies.

• Buy bubble wrap and plastic bags if you plan to ship some of your items through the mail (rather than pack them yourself).

• Get some packing paper or newsprint to line boxes that have delicate items inside them (like dishes). This will help prevent breakage during transport. You can also use this material when wrapping fragile items in newspaper or magazine pages before placing them in their new home on the shelf of your new home! Packing paper is available at most grocery stores with a pharmacy section like Walmart or Target.

• Consider purchasing a scale so that you know how much weight each box weighs as well as how much space it'll take up in your vehicle for easier loading requirements when moving day comes along!

• A label maker helps keep track of what belongs where; just be sure not to forget about labeling everything else too like kitchen appliances and electronics so there isn't any confusion later on down the road when making repairs after settling into this new living space!

Start sorting

Start sorting. The first step in any decluttering process is to separate your items into categories. This can be done by room, type of item, or any other way that makes sense to you. Your goal is to get all the items in one place so that you can start deciding what to keep and what to toss out. If you're doing a complete move from one apartment or house into another, then your sorting process will likely include boxes labeled "kitchen" and "bedroom."

Once you have all of your items sorted, it's time to go through each box and decide what should stay and what should go. This can be a tiring task, but many ways will make the process simpler. For example, if you're moving into an apartment or condo that comes with furniture then you probably won't need any of your old stuff (unless it's something like dishes or linens).

Start packing early

It’s time to get your house in order! Pack early and often. To do that, you will need to make sure you have enough time to pack. Getting everything together is the most important step of this process, so don’t rush it. Take your time and be organized as much as possible throughout this process (order boxes, labels, etc.). The more organized you are with packing up all of your belongings, the less stressful moving day will be when it finally arrives.

Notify utilities

Next up, let's make sure you've got the right information to notify utility companies.

If you're buying a house, sometimes the current owner will sign over their utility accounts and other paperwork along with the deed, but if not—and even if they do—you'll need to get in touch with your local electricity and gas providers to transfer those accounts into your name.

Your electric company will require different information depending on whether or not they use meters that read automatically or manually by meter readers (almost all do).

Change your address

Contact your post office, cable company, and electricity company to let them know you're moving. Do the same for gas, internet, and phone providers. The DMV has a special change of address form online that allows you to update your license and registration at the same time. Once that's done, contact all insurance companies—car, health, and life—to inform them of your new location; this will ensure that you aren't charged higher premiums due to moving. You'll want to do the same with any medical practices or dentists that might be associated with an HMO (health maintenance organization).

Work with your movers on moving day

If you have movers coming in to help with the big day, make sure to get your plan together so that everyone knows what needs to be done and when. You don’t want your movers standing idle while they wait for instructions!

The first thing on your moving day checklist should be making sure that you know exactly what route your movers will take through the house and in what order they’ll pack up each room. Do you want them packing up all of the bedrooms first and working their way up from there? Or would it be easier if they started at one end of the house and worked their way towards another area? Either way is fine—just let them know so they can get started immediately once they arrive.

Once those first steps are taken care of, start thinking about what belongings need to go where and how long it will take for them to get moved into place once packed away. For example: if every single picture frame has been removed from its wall space but only half of these frames have found themselves new homes downstairs already (on tables/in closets), then maybe now would be an appropriate opportunity for some rearranging before things start getting packed away by professionals!

As you can see, there are a lot of things to think about when buying your first home. We hope that this checklist was helpful and you find it easy to create a plan for your future home!