7 Unexpected Moving Expenses

When you first move into a house, there are tons of costs. You know about many of them, but there are a lot of unexpected moving expenses you need to plan for!

If you are planning on buying a house and moving, you probably know that it is really expensive. While you might be focused on budgeting for a down payment and closing costs, you also need to consider moving costs.

There are so many costs involved in moving, and while you might know a few of them, there are a lot of unexpected costs that come up with moving that you need to plan for. You'll be better off knowing about them in advance so you can plan for them and budget, in case you need to keep a little bit more money back and not put it all in your down payment.

Moving costs to budget for when buying a house

Aside from actual movers, here is a list of actual unexpected expenses that we or friends have incurred when moving. Make sure that you budget for them right alongside your down payment and closing costs!

Moving Supplies

Boxes, tape, and packing materials can all add up, especially if you need a lot of them. We shared this post on our favorite resources for free moving boxes, so really try to get as many as you can for free. That will save a ton of money.

At the store, large moving boxes can cost several dollars each, plus the costs of packing tape, bubble wrap, and other supplies. So anywhere you can cut costs on actual moving supplies, you should do so.

New Locks

Most anyone will tell you that the first thing that you should do after moving is change the locks. The reason behind this is you never know who might have keys to the house from the previous occupants. And even the old owners themselves might not have given you all their keys.

While you don't want to think the worst of people, you can never be too cautious when it comes to securing your new home.

We went ahead and changed the knobs and locks on all of our exterior doors. Depending on how many doors you have, the cost can really add up when you're looking at between $25-50 for different lock types.

Consider buying a pack with multiple locks in it to be more cost effective. This is a great time to pick the style of knob or handle that you want and change them all out at once!

Light Bulbs

It was important to me that we had LED light bulbs in all of our fixtures. LED light bulbs are more energy efficient and last longer. Plus, when we moved in, we realized that a lot of the bulbs in the house were missing anyways!

Light bulbs aren't expensive, but replacing every bulb in a house can hurt your bottom line. Once again, consider buying in bulk to save per item.

Blinds

We somehow never realized in all of our walk-throughs of our house that not a single window had blinds. It was a vacant house that had renters in it before and apparently they were so destroyed that the owners just took them all down before they listed the house.

Well, we figured out pretty quickly that we needed the privacy and thermal protection from blinds, and even choosing plastic "faux wood" blinds seriously adds up! Price these out in advance and prioritize which rooms you need to do first if you can't swing them all right away.

There's also a lot of levels of blinds, from cheap plastic ones with the twisty handle to cordless blinds to faux shutters. Depending on how many of which kinds you choose, this expense adds up really quickly.

Immediate Repairs

Did you agree to ignore any problems in your home inspection? Ours revealed that our garbage disposal was broken but we overlooked it because we knew that we could DIY the fix (and we wanted to focus on getting them to pay for a new HVAC system).

Make a list of any problems in the inspection that you don't have fixed and go ahead and repair them immediately or you will never do it! Especially if the problem is something that is an immediate safety or functional concern.

However, repairs will come with a cost. So try to make sure to lower how much you pay for the house if you need to make some of these bigger repairs as soon as you move in.

Yard Equipment 

If you are moving into your first house with a yard, you probably don't have a lot of yard equipment. We previously lived in a 3rd floor condo and definitely didn't have a yard.

We moved during the summer and pretty quickly had to get a lawnmower, rakes, shovels, edgers, a hose, and more. Luckily, we were able to get some things as "hand-me-downs" from my dad, who was downsizing at the time.

If you are in a pinch, consider pawn shops for larger equipment like mowers, or ask your neighbors if you can borrow things for the first season. We apologized to our new neighbor the first few times we asked them for help and he kept saying, "don't worry about it, we're neighbors." They are happy to help.

Sometimes, when you feel like you are hemorrhaging money, "good enough" is good enough for now!

Appliances

Is your seller taking their washer, dryer, microwave, or refrigerator? Those are big ticket items that you probably need right away.

If you can swing purchasing them on a holiday weekend, big box stores are more likely to have sales. You might also need to budget for delivery fees for those items if you don't have a truck or don't want to move them from the store yourself.