What To Know When Closing On Your New Home

First off, congratulations on closing on your new home! Closing day is always such an exciting and memorable experience, but you may now find yourself asking “what’s next?” Well, you’ve already gotten through the hardest part of your journey: getting an approved mortgage and finding/closing on your dream home (which on average takes about 10 weeks for a buyer to shop around and close on a home according to floridarealtors.com). So, give yourself a pat on the back for getting through that long & well-deserved journey! WOW! As for what’s next, we’ve got the remaining tasks covered for you below.

Post-Closing Walk-Thru: Prior to closing on your home, you completed a final walk-through where you made sure your property had everything that was listed on your contract (including any repairs that were to be made by the seller, home appliances that may have been agreed upon were present, etc.) and were able to make note of where all the important items are in your home, like your electrical box. Upon closing on your home and getting your keys, you should do one more walk-thru in your home though before filling it up with all your personal possessions. Why? This time, you’ll be walking through your home with a completely different feeling and a new set of eyes as an official homeowner. Even if you already had an idea in mind for where you wanted to place certain items, the empty house will be like a newly blank canvas for you allowing creative ideas to flow freely. Instead of putting your sectional in the back corner of the family room, you may now realize you want to put it in the spare bedroom & turn it into a movie room. By finalizing how you want your home to look and getting organized, it’ll allow the moving process to run more smoothly—don’t forget to label all your packed boxes accordingly too. If you decide you now want to paint too or do any home improvement projects, you can better prepare for that now before you move as well (or at the very least, you’ll know to not move any belongings into that space until those tasks are completed).

New Keys: Once you’ve closed on your home, you’ll want to add ‘go to the hardware store’ on your to-do list. While we recommend stopping by the key section to check out the fun selection of key designs (the options range from sports teams to cartoon characters to colored keys), you’ll want to first head to the lock section. The reason being is whether you’ve bought a new construction home or an existing home, you have no idea who has had access to your keys prior to being handed them at closing. So, it’s always better to be safe than sorry and find some new locks to install in your home (plus, you’ll get to choose the style that best fits you and your home design). Once you’ve purchased your locks, you can swap out the standard keys they come with and purchase keys over at the key stand —not only is this fun to do, but it’s a useful way to tell which key is which easily on your keychain. Not sure how to properly install your home lock? Hire a professional to make sure it’s done correctly. Once your locks are ready to go, do a quick walk through the house to check your windows & make sure they’re locked if they’re not currently in use as an extra security precaution.

Changing Utilities/ Address: When you’re moving into a new place, what’s one of the most important items? Making sure your utilities accounts are set up and running! While it’s not the most exciting thing on your new homeowner task list, it’s important that you are able to move into a home with working water and electricity —wouldn’t that be disappointing if that had slipped your mind. In addition to switching over your utilities, you’re going to want to make sure you put in an official change of address request so that your mail can start coming to your new home. To put in for a change of address, you can go to your local post office. The easiest way? Putting in the request virtually from the comfort of your home. To do so, click here and fill out the form. Don’t forget that you’ll need to update your address separately for items like your checking account, online subscriptions, etc.

Deep Clean: Pandemic or not, it’s time to deep clean your home! Even if it was in your contract that the house would be cleaned prior to moving in, it’s always a good habit to go back through and double check that it’s been cleaned to your liking. For new construction homes, dust often gets moved around the air when the home is being cleaned, so you may simply just need to do a quick wipe down and mop. As for existing homes, everyone has their own understanding of a “deep clean.” For some cleaning agencies, they’ll do most of the house, but leave out cleaning appliances etc. So, we recommend going back in yourself a second time. To make life easier on yourself, we recommend doing the deep clean after moving in all your belongings. Then, if needed, you can do a quick touch up once everything has been unloaded and it’s set in its place (during the moving process, some boxes may bring in dust and dirt so it’s best to wait until they’re all in the house). Whether you decide to tackle this deep clean yourself or leave it to the professionals, it’s up to you but this step is highly recommended. After all, it’s a great way to start fresh as a new homeowner.

Lastly, enjoy your new neighborhood and get to know your neighbors. This and decorating your home might just be one of the best perks of moving somewhere new! Whenever you cross paths with your new neighbors, be sure to introduce yourself— friendly communication, even if it’s just a ‘hello, how are you’ while going on a walk, is one of easiest ways to start building relationships in your community. Once again, congratulations on this new chapter of your life!

P.S. Don’t forget about your lender after you move into your new home! They will be able to help you with refi’s later down the road when your lifestyle/ personal finances start to shift.