Moving Home Without the Stress

Charlotte left her job as Senior Product Manager at Ocado to launch www.fairygodmover.com at the end of last year. She is hoping that her beta testers, who need to be buying or planning to buy a home, will help improve the website by giving feedback on their experience and if they found it a useful tool.

The website provides end-to-end guidance from house hunting to moving day and aims to help users avoid costly mistakes while feeling informed and confident. The website creates a personalised checklist of tasks to complete and gives bite-size explanations and advice.

Charlotte says: “Moving house in the UK is rated as one of the most stressful events of our lives, ranking higher than having a child or getting a divorce.  So, our vision is a world where buying a home isn't nerve-wracking or full of nasty surprises. We want home buyers to spend their precious time on the important things: deciding which home they want to buy and weighing up the pros and cons of big decisions. Our website acts as a user-friendly guide to the whole buying process.

“Any volunteers who help us test out our service would benefit by getting personal attention from me and my co-founder, all through their home buying journey.  We will answer any questions they might have and research anything they need help with.”

Charlotte explains: “I love a good spreadsheet, and I started with an idea to help people plan their finances throughout their life, considering big expenses like buying a house, a wedding, and having children. First, I created a calculator to work out how big a house you could afford to buy, taking into account all the fees and stamp duty, and put it up on a website.

“But gradually I realised that there were much bigger problems with the process of buying a house, so I decided to pivot into fixing that instead! My boyfriend decided that my start-up idea was better than his and offered to become my co-founder last summer. We were struggling to progress the idea alongside full-time jobs, so we took the plunge to go full-time in November.”

Friends, family and some willing guinea pigs have tried out www.fairygodmover.com, but now Charlotte is keen to get some fresh eyes on the site and wants to get the word out to LEH alumnae. Feedback can be provided via the website contact page, or by emailing info@fairygodmover.com.

She adds: “I've always had in the back of my mind that I wanted to find a way to help people, and now seems like the right time to take the plunge!”