Second steppers are usually faced with the unique challenge of selling and buying simultaneously for the first time – a daunting experience, but one we’re here to help you with at every point.
If you’re taking that “second step”, chances are you will be upsizing your home, especially if your family has grown since you bought it. You may also have new priorities that come with having children, such as a desire to be closer to good schools, or you’re searching for a better work-life balance.
Our premium Heritage Collection homes, which come in three, four and five-bedroom designs, are ideal if you’re planning on moving to a bigger house. We also carefully select our locations so they’re often in the best places to raise a family. That means, if you’re buying a second stepper home, you’ll be within easy reach of local amenities such as schools, shops and green space.
Is it time to upsize? Signs you’re ready to move on
We’ve previously explored the 10 signs it’s time to move home, which can vary depending on your stage of life.
If you’re a second stepper, you may have started to feel cramped in your existing home, and there’s only so much reorganising or decluttering you can do when trying to regain space. At a certain point, it may be time to upsize.
Typical reasons for moving to a larger home may include a new baby or another change in circumstances, such as a relative coming to live with you or a new job. You may need more bedrooms, a home office or additional storage space. A utility room may now feel essential to handle the laundry requirements of an expanding family or a downstairs cloakroom could be on your wish list. A new job may mean you need a dedicated home workspace. Or your move may be driven by a desire for a lifestyle change, such as a search for more garden space, better local amenities or a closer-knit community that new developments can offer.
Redrow homes come with a range of layouts that all have flexible family living in mind. These include our four-bedroom homes such as the Shaftesbury, which offers a fabulous open-plan kitchen, dining and family room stretching generously across the rear of the property. Or the five-bedroom Blenheim, which has two front reception rooms, one of which would work well as a formal dining room or a home office.
Selling your home as a second stepper: what to know
Buying a second home can feel like a big step, so read on for lots of tips for selling your home and other things for you to consider.
While undoubtedly daunting and exciting in equal measure, buying your first home was probably comparatively simple compared to the situation you’re faced with as a second stepper – buying and selling at the same time. You may be more familiar now with the conveyancing jargon, but you are still a first time seller and there’s a lot to juggle.
When is the best time to sell?
Timing is crucial, but there’s also the perennial dilemma of whether to sell your home first before you find your next property or wait until you’ve found your dream home and hope it’s still available when you’ve found a buyer.
Many estate agents will only let you view properties if your current home is on the market. This means you may encounter a situation where your current property is under offer but you haven’t yet decided where to move. There are other timing factors to consider too. Do you need to be in your new home in time for a new school term, or hope to be in for Christmas or summer?
According to UK Government statistics, it takes an average of five months to buy a home, but this is impacted by many factors, including the length of your chain. You may be lucky and sell your first home to another first time buyer meaning the chain stops with your house sale. If not, you may find yourself in a chain that includes several people below and above you.
Putting your house on the market during the busier selling seasons of the new year and autumn could be a smart move to ensure you maximise the number of potential buyers and therefore its value.
Preparing to sell
It’s recommended that you first prepare your home for sale – declutter inside, complete unfinished DIY jobs, tidy the garden, and spruce up the front of your property to boost its kerb appeal and value.
Speak to an independent financial advisor about what you can afford and seek valuations from at least three estate agents on your current property. Try to find recommendations or check online reviews for agents to find one who will best meet your needs.
Fortunately, there is an easy way to manage buying and selling at the same time.
Our Help to Sell scheme has been designed to support those with an existing property. It takes all the hassle out of selling up and moving on, as we, and our estate agency partners, will do all of the hard work for you; marketing your home for sale, and allowing you to reserve your Redrow home. We’ll even contribute towards your estate agency fees. And when you’re buying new, there is no onward chain, just a friendly and experienced Redrow team behind you helping your sale and purchase to run smoothly. We can even recommend mortgage specialists and solicitors who are familiar with new homes to make things even more straightforward.
Nic and Sarah Lordan used Help to Sell when moving from their first Redrow home in Liverpool to one in Cheshire. They upsized from a three-bedroom home to a four-bedroom Cambridge.
Nic said: “The Oxford Lifestyle was great because it had fewer but larger bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom. For the next stage of our lives, we wanted to be able to use one bedroom as an office and have spare bedrooms for family. What we loved about the Cambridge was the kitchen, dining and living area at the back of the home.”
Help to Sell made the move even more straightforward, as Nic explained: “It was sold within four weeks; it was an excellent process and Home Move Hub, the agent working alongside Redrow, were very professional and helpful and removed a lot of the stress.”
Finding the right location for your growing family
For many of us, location is the key factor when searching for a new home. Carefully consider your top priorities; do you need to be close to a great nursery or school, for now or in the future? When it comes to how to choose the right school, you can usually find information about school catchment areas and starting a new school on your local council’s website.
Would you benefit from having community facilities nearby such as a playground or sports pitches? Are healthcare, shops, and transport links high up on your priority list? You can use Google Maps to see what’s around your new property or search on local websites and social media groups to build a complete picture. Once you’ve narrowed down your search area, visit the location at different times of the day to see what traffic is like.
Proximity to nature may be important to you. Are there places for dog walks or cycling trails or green spaces and playgrounds around your new home where you can walk or play with your family? If you’re buying on a new development you can view the site plan online, or for Redrow developments, you could visit our customer experience suites to take a virtual tour around our new homes and the streets of our developments to discover what it’s like to live there, even before the homes are built.
Our walkable, family-friendly neighbourhoods and garden village developments are designed around green spaces and places for play, with priority given to people over cars and footpaths and cycle links to local points of interest. Well-planned communal areas also make new developments great places to meet friends and neighbours.
Explore spacious Redrow homes designed for growing families
From open-plan living to larger gardens and flexible layouts, find a home that suits your family's next step.
Two-time Redrow homeowners Rachel Ware and Connor Smith made their dream a reality when they finally purchased their ‘aspirational’ Redrow home in Hartford, Cheshire, having originally bought on the development as first-time buyers in 2020. Rachel, said: “After living in the Cambridge for five years, we knew that the final two Henleys were being built on our development. New homes are all Connor has known so he said we either go for it and get our dream home or stay where we were. So it felt as if it was now or never for us to buy our dream home.”
The family, who have a young son, wanted to stay in Hartford as the amenities, schools and connections to Manchester and Liverpool Airport, where cabin crew Rachel and aircraft engineer Connor work, were ideal.
Rachel continued: “The fact that we have en-suite bathrooms to bedrooms one and two was a huge factor for us. Connor’s family live in Scotland so when they come and stay, they stay for a few days at a time. Having the second en-suite gives them their own space, it’s great.”
Planning for a smooth family move
Once you’ve sold your existing property and found your perfect new Redrow home, there are still some key things to plan to ensure your move runs smoothly.
If you have a moving date pencilled in, start packing early and label every box with the room and contents. Top family moving house tips: you’ll always need more boxes than you think – up to 100 boxes is not an unreasonable estimate for a three-bedroom house.
Source quotes from several removals companies. You will need a shortlist of at least three, as dates can get booked up. Again, check online reviews before you make contact and ask friends and neighbours for recommendations.
Planning ahead will always make life easier when it comes to completion day, so check out more of our moving day hacks.
It’s a good idea to arrange a final viewing on your new property. If it’s an older home, you need to ensure it's in the same condition as it was when you first viewed it or, if you’re buying new, a home preview is a great chance to check your specification choices and ask any questions.
Packing children’s rooms ahead of time, in stages, is a good way to ensure children get used to the idea of moving. Allow them to keep a box of their most treasured toys to one side, which they can access right up to moving day.
If they’re starting a new school, start talking about this early and often. Visiting the new school when you visit your new house, and even practicing the walk or commute to school can all help ease those first-day nerves.
If you can, keep as much of your family’s routine the same before and after the move to ease stress for you all. Redrow homes offer ready-to-move-in comfort, tailored for family life, and where everything has been done for you. There are plenty of storage options to make unpacking a breeze. You won’t have any previous owner’s decorating or DIY disasters to contend with; you can just move in and personalise your home in your own time.
Find the perfect family home for your next step
Discover our larger family homes in beautiful, well-connected locations designed with your family’s future in mind.
