Buy, sell and move house - Which? guide

We have recently bought and moved into a house. We didn't sell, as didn't have a house, so maybe my judgement can be ignored for that part of the book. In any case, I think the book's rubbish.

It does provide detailed lists and guides, but many of these lists are assuming that you're a forgetful idiot - e.g. list of people to contact about change of address. It provides information that's freely and easily available on the internet. In the end, our solicitor guided us through the process wonderfully, so that part really was redundant.

There are some good bits. It provides incredibly detailed breakdown on the costs, and has an inspection checklist that should make it nearly impossible to be surprised by any minor niggles around the house once you've moved in. Needless to say, we used neither. We avoided choosing a house that made really tight budgeting necessary, and knew that once we'd selected an old house that there would be plenty of little things in need of tidying. As long as the survey captured all the big things, we didn't think it was worth sweating it.

In the end, I found this no more than a particularl uncomfortable comfort blanket to the moving process.

Posted 2010-08-30.