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Why is moving house so stressful?

Writer's picture: Skye TaylorSkye Taylor

If you don't move house often, it can be easy to forget the stress it can cause, and its little wonder why that's the time that relations with tenants break down, at the end of a tenancy.


I recently moved house and now I am feeling more settled many months later, I have had some time to reflect on the experience.

I have lived in no less than 19 houses in my adult lifetime (this move was number 20!) so I am quite familiar with moving, and always used to think I was rather gypsy like, and I quite enjoyed moving. It was a chance to declutter, and start fresh somewhere new. A chance to buy new furniture and put my interior styling skills to use, I loved moving home!





However, my most recent move was altogether quite different. I was downsizing, and I think this caused me the most stress of all. There. Was. So. Much. Stuff.


I had 2 trucks from two different locations as I had a number of items in storage. I had removalists for the storage truck, and I filled up a regular sized moving truck with belongings from my last home. Shout out to my friend for helping me that day, after abruptly realising I could not do it all on my own!


There was just no room for 2 trucks of belongings, and the anxiety this gave me was pretty intense! My home looked very similar to the above image, and pretty much every square meter of floor, every furniture item, every benchtop, had boxes on it.


I only took 1 day off work, because I was so optimistic I would get it all done in a weekend (HA) I managed to get a fair bit done that first week, but I would say it took me a full month to truly feel settled in my home.

I got food poisoning on my first night and was very unwell the entire weekend, hardly able to eat because nothing stayed down, but boxes had to be unpacked.

And then I had to get rid of the boxes! There were so many! The image below is 1 load of boxes to the dump, there were 2!



This was a happy move..


I think the thing that stuck with me, is that this was a move to a home I had just purchased, and I was beyond excited to be moving in. What if the move was not something I wanted but had to do?


What if I had been given notice to leave by my landlord? What if my relationship had broken down and that's why I had to move? What if I was dealing with other things in my life, illness, work stress, financial pressure, or any of the other normal life stressors on top of moving home, and a salty email from a property manager about cleaning standards whilst going through all of that might just be the thing that sends me over the edge?


I think as all real estate agents will tell you, we facilitate people with homes on the daily, so it's super easy to forget that this is up there as one of the most stressful things for people to deal with, usually because life doesn't stop just because you are moving home. You still have to go to work, deal with kids, and any other life situation that may be going on.


Especially for property managers, the volume at which we deal with move ins and move outs, and the speed at which clients (landlords and tenants) expect everything to be resolved, it is all too easy to forget this is stressful. For everyone! PMs included.


For landlords, it's stressful as there may be increased costs at this time, worry about vacancy days, possible damage to the asset, just to name a few.


For tenants, nobody wants to lose their bond, and moving is expensive, so any dispute which may arise in a potential claim on that bond can be received in a very different way at this time, rather than earlier in the tenancy, without the moving stress thrown on top.

Empathy goes a long way

As someone who has moved often, I do like to think I had empathy when working with my clients who are moving, but I definitely have a higher level of understanding now and will always ensure understanding and support with this tricky time.

This is just one of the ways that I value relationships with my tenants, because the process is hard enough, I definitely do not want to make it harder!

This does not mean I always succeed, and there are times I cannot reach an agreement with both tenant and landlord, and sometimes as a PM, I am the bad guy as the person in the middle. However, I will always approach the situation with care and understanding and hopefully this results in a good outcome for both parties.


I hope your next move is a happy one, and especially if you are one of my tenants, you will find the process a little easier than your last move!

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