1 RIGHT HOUSE, HOUSE PRICE

House-hunting has become almost a pleasure now so many properties are advertised online with new, sophisticated ways for surfers to search for them — by price, location, property type and number of bedrooms. Broadband innovations such as virtual tours cut travel and research expenses considerably. At www.rightmove.co.uk, savvy surfers can view more than 670,000 homes and receive e-mail alerts when suitable properties appear. Most descriptions include photos and a helpful map of the location. Rightmove also provides registered members with free access to the Land Registry’s database, where you can see what offers vendors have been accepting on similarly priced houses. This could save you thousands of pounds when negotiating a new purchase and help you agree a realistic price for your existing property. For information about local schools, council tax and crime, UpMyStreet (www.upmystreet.co.uk) is an essential reference.

2 SAVE ON YOUR MORTGAGE

It’s always good to shop around for a better mortgage. Switching a £200,000 loan from a lender charging 5.7% APR to one charging 5.2% could save more than £5,000 over five years, according to the handy mortgage-comparison service www.moneynet. co.uk. The broker Charcolonline (www.charcolonline.co.uk) usually charges £5 for membership, but provides access to more than 800 mortgages — many exclusive deals — from 36 lenders. Registering and filling in the “mortgage wizard” form takes time, especially for the self-employed, who need to have recent net-profit figures to hand, but this ensures that the results are suited to you. Narrow down the search by specifying what type of loan you are looking for, from capped to base-rate tracker, and excluding those with early-redemption penalties, for example. Applying online takes about 20 minutes.

3 SELLING UP

If the thought of paying an estate agent 2% of your home’s value (£8,000 on a £400,000 property) makes your blood boil, consider cutting out the middleman and selling direct via www.houseweb.com. Advertising packages cost £47-£299, depending on how many photos you include and the number of websites your property is listed on. Houseweb claims that your advert can be viewed by a potential audience of 2.1m online house-hunters. The most expensive package includes a 360-degree virtual tour of your property for potential buyers, although the fisheye lens distorts the picture somewhat. You can also pay £30 extra for a conventional For Sale board, to catch the eye of passing traffic. If DIY home sales don’t appeal, find a local agent through the National Association of Estate Agents (www.naea.org.uk), and be prepared to haggle on the commission. HalfaPercent (www.halfapercent.com), an internet-only agent, offers rates of 0.5%-2%.

4 VITAL PAPERWORK

By paying for a basic homebuyer’s survey or a more in-depth structural survey of your property, you can save time later with prospective buyers. The quote engine at www.reallymoving.com is a handy tool, enabling you to view several quotes from chartered surveyors in your area. Fees depend on the size and value of your house, but expect to pay £300-£920 for a home-buyer’s report and £480-£1,100 for a structural survey. Alternatively, find a local surveyor through the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (www.ricsfirms.co.uk). You can also cut the costs of conveyancing — the legal process of transferring ownership of land and property — by comparing fees online. Say you were selling a property for £400,000 and buying one for £500,000: Home Conveyancing (www.homeconveyancing.co.uk) would charge £1,233, NBM Solicitors (www.nbmlaw.co.uk) £1,009. At Really Moving’s site, you can find quotes as low as £650.

5 DON’T LIFT A FINGER

Boxing up your possessions, shoving them in a lorry and unpacking them all again can seem like the most frustrating activity ever invented. With offices across the country, and more than 150 years’ experience, Bishop’s Move (www.bishops-move.co.uk) can do the perspiring for you. The website gives a rough online quotation for a straight move without the trimmings: for a four-bedroom property, travelling up to 100 miles, it quotes £500-£900. A Platinum service promises to handle the whole upheaval: the before-the-move package (a handyman will remove electrical fittings and do packing and wrapping) costs £220; add £350 for post-move assistance (cleaning kitchen cupboards, unpacking, hanging clothes, organising the dining room). Both prices exclude mileage costs. Great-value alternatives to skips are the easily storable, hard-wearing Hippobags (£8-£14). Find your nearest stockist at www.hippowaste.co.uk; then, when it’s full, arrange a collection online (£40-£55).

6 REVIEW ESSENTIALS

Moving to a new home usually means adopting the previous occupant’s utility suppliers, but you can save up to £170 per year by switching, says the tariff-comparison service Uswitch (www.uswitch.com). Enter your new postcode and estimated energy consumption and pick the best deal; then do the same for your telephone and broadband connections. Upgrading the old TV aerial so that it can handle digital Freeview should cost £80-£190: find a local installer through the Confederation of Aerial Industries (www.cai.org.uk). And have you told everyone your new address? Royal Mail (www.royalmail.com) provides a post-redirection service for £6.65 per surname for one month, or £34 for a year. You can print an application form from the site and renew online. Your new gaff may also need a good clean before you unpack. The Polti Vaporetto Sprint Steam Cleaner will make short work of bacteria, dust mites and dirt; £179 from www.electricshopping.com.

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