To take the stress out of moving and give you some guidelines for what you should be doing and when to do it, we created a 5-week countdown you can follow. Sometimes you won’t have the luxury of 5 weeks before you move, so feel free to adapt this countdown to whatever timeline you’re working with.

Five Weeks Out 

• Take inventory of everything that you’ll need to move and decide what you want to sell, donate, or throw away.
• Decide if you want to move by yourself or hire a moving company.
• Start collecting and buying boxes, and get labels for the boxes.
• Start packing items you don’t need between now and the move day.

Four Weeks Out

• Have the garage sale to sell any unwanted items.
• Drop off any items that didn’t sell to your chosen donation center.

Three Weeks Out

• Find out how to change over bills and transfer services.
  • This should include TV, the internet, utilities, and any other bills that are mailed to your current home.
• Clean out the attic, shed, garage, and other places you use as storage.
• If you’re not using professional movers, contact friends and family to see if they’re available and willing to help you move.

Two Weeks Out

• Create a packing plan that outlines which boxes and furniture will go on the truck first.
• Make a travel kit with essential items like keys, toiletries, and first aid.

One Week Out

• Pack items you don’t need between now and the move day, which should be most of the house.
• Start labeling boxes so everyone knows where to put each box once you get to the new home.
• Make sure you have enough prescription medication and set up a new pharmacy close to your new home.
• Backup computers on an external hard drive or cloud storage in case they get damaged in the move.

 

 

Buying a new construction home can make calculating the property tax a bit difficult because there’s no historical data to go off. So how can homeowners know how much money to budget for property tax? Thankfully, there are a few ways to do this.

Talk with the Assessor 

A tax assessor will come to the property as part of their tax assessment. They’ll look at the condition of your property and the properties surrounding yours to make their decision. They also look at what your neighbors and other people in your general area are currently paying in taxes. Being at the property at the time of the assessment and getting some face time with the assessor can give you an indication of what the final number might look like.

Do Some Research

Your property tax will likely be pretty similar to your neighbors, if you have any, and other homeowners in your city. See what other nearby homeowners are paying in property tax to get a general range of taxes that might be applied to your home.

Use Some Tools

If all else fails, there are some online tools that will give you an idea of what your property tax will be. A great one to use is SmartAsset.com. Sites like this can only give you a rough idea, so don’t expect to get the exact number you’ll end up paying. However, you can typically get a pretty close guess using this free resource.

Ask for a Reassessment

If the bill comes in the mail and it’s more than you were expecting, you can ask the city to reassess your property. However, it’s not a good idea to ask for this reassessment just because you want to lower your bills. It is possible the assessor decides to raise your taxes after the assessment, so you need to have logical reasoning behind your request.

 

 

Let’s face it, moving isn’t fun. Having to pack up everything you own and load it on a truck isn’t how anyone wants to spend a Saturday. Thankfully, it’s 2017 and there are plenty of helpful moving apps.

MyMove 

If you’re hiring professional help to make the move, MyMove can be a great resource for you. This app offers a crash course in creating an efficient moving process, including how to get organized. However, the main focus of this app is to be a hub of reviews of local moving companies. You’ll get access to reviews from past clients and other data-driven metrics you can use to find the right movers.

MoveAdvisor

This app is great for anyone who wants to take the guesswork out of moving. MoveAdvisor creates a custom moving timeline that gives you week by week reminders so you stay on track instead of scrambling to pack the night before. In addition to the timeline, MoveAdvisor will also calculate the number of boxes and packing blankets you’ll need based on the amount of stuff you have.

Sortly

One of the biggest frustrations involved in moving is trying to find everything once you unload the truck at your new home. It’s rare to get all the boxes opened and the contents unloaded the first day, or even the first month. This inevitably leads to living out of boxes and slowly unloading as you need something out of the box. So how do you remember what’s in each box? Sortly helps you categorize each box and note what’s inside. When you need to find the pasta fork, you can pull up the app and instantly know which box to open.

These are just a few of the moving apps that are available to you. If you know of any other apps that make moving easier, drop a comment below and let us know!

To find the right home builder you need to ask the right questions. If it’s your first time working with a home builder, it’s hard to know what criteria are important and what questions to ask. No matter if it’s your first or third time building a custom home, you should ask the following questions anytime you work with a home builder you’ve never worked with before.

How Long Have You Been in Business?

Experience is incredibly important in the home building industry. There’s plenty of room for error if a builder hasn’t been around long enough to know better. Perry Hood Properties has been building homes in the Tulsa area since 1981, and our experience is unmatched.

Can I See Your Portfolio?

Home builders might specialize in a certain style of home. If this is the case, make sure the style of homes they commonly build matches your desired style of home. If you’re looking for an ultra-sleek modern home, and the builder primarily builds rustic farmhouse homes they might not be the best fit.

How Many Options Do I Get? 

Building a custom home isn’t much fun if you can’t make the home very custom. Different home builders will give you different levels of customization. Some might only let you pick the paint color and cabinets, but others will let you design a custom floor plan.

Which Subcontractors Do You Work With?

If a home builder doesn’t do all the construction with an in-house team, ask which sub-contractors they use to build the home. Since these subcontractors will have a large impact on the overall quality of the home construction, you’ll want to make sure all the subcontractors are up to par.

Do You Have Good Customer Ratings?

Ask to see some testimonials from previous customers and see what they thought of the experience. You’ll obviously want to see how they like living in the home, but it’s also a good idea to see how they enjoyed the building process. There are a lot of moving parts when building a home, and the home builder needs to facilitate a smooth building process for the homeowner.