According to a survey conducted by the Yorkshire Bank:
1) Finding a house that meets requirements.
2) Packing up. (And 43% would prefer to enlist the help of family and friends, rather than allow a group of mouth-breathing strangers pack up their personal belongings.)
3) Waiting to hear if an offer is accepted. I'm surprised this isn't top of the list.
4) Waiting for an offer. Again, surprising this isn't higher than finding a suitable house - especially in the current market climate.
5) Saving for a deposit.
6) The period before exchange of contracts.
7) Unpacking in the new home. Presumably this is stressful because we don't know where things go?
8) Waiting for the surveyor's report.
9) Finding a good mortgage deal.
10) Finding a good solicitor.
After the jump, the Rat and Mouse's own top ten causes of house moving stress:
1) Viewings. Having to pretend complete strangers poking their heads around the door to my office when I'm trying to write isn't a distraction.
2) Hearing my estate agent, who's there to serve me, tell the viewer he thinks I could be talked down a bit.
3) Still being able to smell the estate agent's aftershave at dinner time, a full six hours after the viewing, even though the front door has deliberately been left open all day in an attempt to disperse the toxicity.
4) Discovering, after accepting an offer, that the "buyer" doesn't actually have a house to sell... a job to go to... any money whatsoever...
5) Pretending I couldn't give a toss about the expression on the surveyor's face as he lifts a carpet (see also "relationship with MOT mechanic as he tests emissions").
6) Learning - after a dozen distinct assurances from the agent who has apparently "done his homework" that the new buyer hasn't gone silent for three weeks because he's planning a gazunder - that the buyer is planning a gazunder.
7) Reading the long list of get out clauses at the bottom of my own survey and realising that even if the house I'm buying turns out to be completely fabricated - in fact, just a giant photograph of a house propped up against a tree - I can't hold my surveyor responsible.
8) Looking around my house and realising I don't own a single thing that doesn't now have to be wrapped in something and put into a box. Wondering if I really want any of this stuff that much.
9) Calling my solicitors to ensure everything's on track for the bank transaction to go through on time, and discovering my solicitor's gone home early, because "she feels a tiny bit poorly".
10) Feeling a tiny bit poorly when I discover the funds haven't, actually, been transferred, and I'm relying on the goodwill of the vendor to keep me from spending the night on a sofa in the back of a removal lorry.
So how was your experience?
