You are deciding which services have to be working at the address on the evening you arrive, which can wait a week, and who you have to call to make each one true at that exact house. The order of those calls matters more than the length of the list, because some of them have lead times longer than the gap between your closing date and your truck.
Take the first Tuesday. It is 6 pm. The truck left an hour ago. Someone needs a bathroom, someone needs a shower, the phone is at 9 percent, and dinner depends on whether the stove is gas or electric and whether either one is on. Every service sorts into one of three columns by that evening: what has to be on when the door opens, what has to be on before the routine starts, and what has to be done before the state or your lender notices.
Sort every service by the first Tuesday
Write three columns.
Day zero is what has to be live when you turn the key: electricity, water and sewer, whatever heats the water (pipeline gas, propane, oil, or electricity), and the answer to which day the trash goes out.
Week one is what has to be live before your ordinary week starts: internet, a cellular signal you have confirmed in the house, mail forwarding, a pharmacy that has your prescriptions.
Month one is what has to be done before a deadline you did not set: driver’s license and vehicle registration, voter registration, the address on your insurance policies, the transfer of any alarm or smart-home system the seller left behind.
Starting everything early puts every service in the day-zero column and buys you a house that works the evening you arrive. It costs you overlapping bills at two addresses, deposits at the new address before the old deposits come back, installation windows that need someone at the house before you live there, and start dates tied to a closing that can slip. Starting everything late saves the overlap and the early deposits. It costs you a dark house on an August evening, a mover unloading without water, a remote worker with no connection for a week, and a utility lead time that turns out to be longer than your gap. The work is to put each service in the column your own first Tuesday requires, knowing what each column charges.
Who owns the wires and pipes at this address
Who you call is a fact about the address rather than the town. Electricity at a given house comes from a regulated investor-owned utility, a municipal utility, or a rural cooperative. Which one serves your street is an official record; your state’s public utility commission lists the regulated utilities in the state and their service territories, and the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners keeps a directory of every state commission at https://www.naruc.org/about-naruc/our-mission/regulatory-commissions/ (Official record). In some states you also choose a retail electricity or gas supplier separately from the utility that owns the wires. Whether your state allows that choice is on the same commission’s site (Official record). Choosing a supplier can lower or raise what you pay per unit, and it adds a contract with its own term and exit fee, so if you sign one before you understand the local rate structure, you have signed a contract in a market you have never lived in.
Heat and hot water are the second question, and a listing rarely answers it fully. Pipeline gas means a gas utility with an account to open. A propane tank means a supplier, and if the tank is leased rather than owned, the lease usually ties you to that supplier until you buy the tank or swap it out. Heating oil means a delivery company and a tank level you should read before the seller leaves. All-electric means the electric account carries the whole load, which changes what a summer bill looks like versus a January bill. Ask the seller in writing which of these the house uses and who the current supplier is (Local observation until the supplier confirms it). The cost of asking is one more question on a closing checklist. The cost of not asking is discovering the tank is at 8 percent on the first cold night.
Water is either a municipal or district account or a private well. If it is a well, no utility is involved; the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency explains at https://www.epa.gov/privatewells that private wells are not regulated under federal drinking water standards and the owner is responsible for testing (Official record). Your county health department holds well and septic permit records for the address (Official record). A well means no water bill, and it also means the pump runs on your electricity, so a power outage is also a water outage until the power comes back.
Trash has a hauler the way power has a utility, and the listing does not say which one. The hauler is the city, the county, an HOA contract, or a private company you hire yourself. Which one applies at this address is on the city or county public works site, or in the HOA documents (Official record). If it is a private hauler, there is no bin on day zero until you order one, and the first pickup is whenever their route reaches your street next.
The four questions to ask every provider
Once you know who serves the address, call each one with the street address in front of you and ask the same four questions. Write the answers down with the date and the name of the person who gave them.
- Do you serve this exact address, and is there an active account there now? A provider that serves the town does not necessarily serve the house. Ask for confirmation at the street address, and ask whether the current account is scheduled to stop.
- What is the lead time from my request to service, and does anyone have to be home? The electric and water utilities can often switch the account remotely. The gas utility often sends someone who needs to be let in to relight appliances. The internet provider may send a technician who needs to work inside the house, and a house that has never had a line may require a construction order. The lead time is provider-reported. Treat the number as a promise you check, and ask what happens if they miss it.
- What do you need from me to open the account? Photo identification, a deposit, a credit check, proof that you own or lease the property, and sometimes the closing date. A deposit ties up money you may want for the move. The alternative, a credit check, is a hard or soft inquiry depending on the provider, so ask which. If you rent, ask the landlord which services the lease already covers before you open anything, because a deposit on an account the landlord pays for is money you get back slowly, if at all.
- What happens between the seller’s stop date and my start date? This is the question that prevents the dark house. A utility that reads the meter and closes the seller’s account on the stop date leaves the house with a night of nothing on if your start date is the next day. Ask for the seller’s stop and your start on the same day, and ask whether the utility will do that without a gap.
Every one of those answers is Provider-reported. The provider’s own written policy, if you can get the page, is closer to an Official record. Ask them where the policy lives so you can read it.
Day zero: what has to be on when the door opens
Electricity first, because the other services depend on it. The well pump, the furnace blower, the garage door, the refrigerator, and the internet modem all wait on the electric account. Ask for the start date that matches the day you take possession, and ask the utility what it does if closing slips a day. Setting the start earlier than closing protects you from the gap and puts you on the hook for power in a house you do not yet own.
Water and sewer next, and they may be one account or two. If the water is municipal, the account may be in the city’s name and transferable with a phone call, or it may require an in-person visit with identification. Ask. If it is a well, there is no account, and you arrange a look at the pressure tank and order a water test through the county health department (Official record for the permit history; Personal verification for the test you order).
Whatever heats the water is third. A gas utility often will not turn on service without someone in the house to check for leaks and relight the water heater and furnace. If you cannot be there, your agent or another set of local eyes has to be, and that is a favor you owe or a service you pay for, with a window they choose rather than you. Propane and oil are deliveries, and a delivery company wants a tank location and a first payment.
Trash belongs in this column too. Know the pickup day and where the bins go before you unload, because unpacking produces cardboard faster than any bin empties. If the hauler is private and you have not ordered service, that cardboard sits in the garage until you do.
Week one: what has to be on before the routine starts
Internet gets its own article, and read it before you buy: How to Verify Internet Service Before You Buy a House. The short form for moving day: the FCC National Broadband Map at https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/ shows, for an exact address, which providers report service, the technology, and the advertised speeds, and it has a challenge process because reported information can be wrong (Provider-reported for the coverage, Official record for the map and the process). Search the exact address. List the providers. Then call each one and ask whether this house has an existing line to it and what the install lead time is. If the house has never been served, the lead time can be measured in weeks, and a construction order can carry a charge. If you work from home, internet moves out of this column and into day zero, and you ask about upload speed as well as download, because a plan’s advertised download speed says nothing about its upload.
Cellular signal is a fact you verify in person, in the rooms where you will work and sleep, on your own carrier’s phone (Personal verification). The FCC map shows mobile coverage as reported by the carriers, and that is Provider-reported. A strong signal at the curb tells you nothing about the back bedroom.
Mail forwarding is filed with the U.S. Postal Service at https://moversguide.usps.com/ (Official record). The online form includes an identity-verification step with a fee, and forwarding runs for a limited period that varies by class of mail, so confirm the current terms on the site rather than assuming forwarding is permanent. Forwarding buys you a window to update the address on every account you forgot. It also delays every piece of mail by the forwarding hop, so bills arrive later during that window.
Prescriptions transfer between pharmacies, but the receiving pharmacy needs to exist and have your insurance on file before the day you run out. Pick the pharmacy the same way you pick anything else on this blog: put it in the five-places test and check the drive from the house at the hour you would make it. A pharmacy inside the grocery store you will use anyway saves a trip. A pharmacy that closes at 6 pm on the day you arrive at 6:15 does not.
Month one: what has to be done before someone notices
Your new state sets a deadline for new residents to get a driver’s license and register vehicles, and the deadline is a number of days that varies by state. USA.gov links to every state’s motor vehicle agency at https://www.usa.gov/state-motor-vehicle-services (Official record). Find your state’s page and write the deadline into your calendar. Registration in a new state can change what you pay in vehicle tax and fees, and it can require an inspection, an emissions test, or proof of insurance written for that state, which means the insurance address change comes first.
Voter registration is at https://vote.gov/ (Official record), which routes you to your state’s process and deadlines.
Your homeowner policy had to be in force at closing, because the lender required it; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that requirement at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/what-is-homeowners-insurance-why-is-homeowners-insurance-required-en-162/ (Official record). Month one is for the address on every other policy: auto, umbrella, life, and any renter’s policy on a storage unit. Changing the auto policy’s garaging address changes the premium in either direction and is not optional, because a claim at an address the insurer does not have on file is a claim you have to argue.
If the seller left an alarm system, a video doorbell, smart locks, or a thermostat that talks to a phone, each one is still tied to the seller’s account until someone changes it. Ask the seller at closing to release the accounts or reset the devices to factory. A reset means you set up every device again from scratch. Leaving them as they are means the seller can still see the doorbell feed.
The gap: the seller’s stop, your start, and a closing that slips
Every start date you set is a bet on the closing date. Closings slip for reasons that have nothing to do with you: a lender’s underwriting condition, a title issue, an appraisal that comes in late, a seller’s own purchase falling through. If you set electric and internet to start on the closing date and closing moves three days, you pay for three days of a house you cannot enter, and the internet technician arrives at a locked door and reschedules to the next available window, which may be another two weeks out.
The defensive move is to set utility starts on the closing date but to hold the internet install appointment until closing is confirmed, then book the earliest window. That costs you a few days of no internet at the start. The alternative, booking the install before closing is confirmed, saves those days if closing holds and costs a missed appointment and a reschedule if it does not. If you work from home and cannot lose those days, book before closing is confirmed and accept the reschedule risk as the price of a working desk on day one. Decide which you would rather lose.
For the article that covers the calendar around this, see What to Do During the Last 30 Days Before an Interstate Move. For what you do once the services are on and the boxes are in, see The First Week in a New Home Checklist.
What must I verify personally
Before moving day, at this address:
- Get the seller’s list of every utility and service provider, with account status and scheduled stop dates, in writing. Then call each provider and confirm it.
- Run the four questions with every provider, using the street address, and write down the date and the name of the person who answered.
- Search the exact address on the FCC National Broadband Map, list the providers, and call each one to ask whether the house has an existing line and what the install lead time is.
- Stand in the bedroom and the room you will work in with your own phone and check the signal.
- Find the electrical panel, the main water shutoff, the gas meter or propane tank, and the well pressure tank or septic lid. Photograph every meter on the day you take possession.
- Confirm the trash and recycling day and whether a bin is at the house.
- Read the HOA or building’s move-in rules and reserve whatever they require.
What should I ask a local
- Which internet provider delivers on this street, and how long did your install take?
- How often does the power go out here, and for how long? Does anyone on the street run a generator?
- Who do you use for propane, oil, septic pumping, or well service, and how far out do they book?
- What day is trash day, and where do the bins go?
- Is the water here city or well, and has anyone on the street had it tested?
What should I ask my agent
- Will you, or someone you trust, be at the house for the gas turn-on and the internet install if I cannot be?
- Can you get the seller’s provider list and stop dates in writing before closing?
- Does this HOA or building require a move-in reservation or a deposit, and have you seen the rule in the documents?
