We have not used professional movers since 2012. At the time of that move we had been in the same area for awhile and used a national company we had used before.
We are in a different area of the country now, and I really have no friends locally who have had a recent move.
I am seeing much stronger online reviews for small, local moving companies than I am for national franchises. What would you do or have you done to select a moving company? Any reasons to avoid a local company? Any reasons to avoid a larger franchise?
Weāve had very little luck with movers. Weāve moved 10 times. The mover for move 4 was fabulous so we used the same company, a national franchise, for the subsequent move. Other than the paperwork, the two experiences couldnāt have been more different. In my experience, what makes or break a move is the driver and the crews.
If you can find a small, local company with some continuity in their staff, Iād start there. Iād also recommend not skimping on the replacement insurance if stuff is broken (and donāt send anything truly irreplaceable with the movers).
When S moved, he used the company that his employer, Fed govt, recommended. They were ok. Maybe ask your employer? Neighbors on nextdoor? Neighbor & friends in real life?
I would look for a reputable local mover.
Consider insuring your belongings during the move. We probably went overboard, but had heard a story about a truck burning up between
properties and so we took out additional insurance.
Yes, we are paying for the move ourselves. We are literally moving across the street. From an intracoastal condo to a beach-facing condo. The plan is to have them only move furniture, and it wonāt be all we have. We bought the new place furnished, and will be keeping some of what they had, getting rid of some of what they had, and incorporating some of what we currently have. Because the unit is larger, some of their furnishings are better scaled than our current ones. Some of our stuff is nicer, but keeping some of their stuff (which is also nice) makes things complete immediately. As the primary example, we want all the furniture out of our two current bedrooms. Trying to decide if itās better to just swap the two rooms out or just donate their stuff that we donāt want. Swapping would mean we could sell ours fully furnished (which is often appealing where we live). Donating the stuff of theirs we donāt want would mean selling our current place only partially furnished. Honestly, I need to find out which gives us the better overall financial result. Swapping will likely cost more than just having them haul away to a donation site. But, having ours fully furnished might make it sell for a bit more. Where is my crystal ball???
I agree with @momofsenior1 - the crew is really the key.
Iām going to do some more research on local places.
My family members have moved quite a bit in the last 10 years, me especially. I used Yelp to find my favorite mover now. I found him 7 years ago. He was a local mover, but he had 5 stars from every single review. I interviewed him extensively before I engaged him. All of his reviews said the actual cost was not over his estimate (very good sign). His reviews said he checked in through out the day to make sure everything was going smoothly. His movers were always on time. Aside from Yelp, I would ask for recommendations from family and friends.
D2 recently moved and decided to use another mover because they were cheaper. The crew showed up and refused to wear mask or gloves. They wanted to charge D2 for every little thing, over and above the actual move. D2 fired them on the spot without having a real backup. She called me to see what could be done because she was supposed to be out of the old apartment that day. I called up my mover to see what they could do. It was first of the month, but they quickly arranged their schedule to D2 out without charging extra.
We just moved. We found a local company with an excellent reputation so we would have used them except for extenuating circumstances at our destination. We needed storage, time to shift things around in the new home before unleashing all of our things into it. So pods were the answer. I had the local movers full the pods and they did an outstanding job. I have two of them, and they are packed with the items most likely needed sooner at the openings. I expect to fully unpack one pod tomorrow with the help of my kids and some local hired help for some heavy lifting. Iāll keep the pod for a bitā possibly having a storage shed built to keep the stuff. Eventually, like within 3 years we expect t add a office/ library and a first floor bedroom to this houseā¦ At that time the boxes of books, papers, memorabilia will comfortably fit.
I have yet to come up with any consistent formula that best works for any move. Even tailoring things as close as possible to our needs and using resources such as realtors, reviews, connections, corporate contacts, itās been difficult. But I blame a lot of it on the fact that we have so much junk.
Iāve moved many times in my life, and I hate it. This will hopefully be the last move for me.
Oldfort has been fortunate to have built up a good relationship.
Iāve hired the same company twice, and the second time was not nearly as good as the first. ( this was first in Boston, and then with another company in my area)
If my move was local, Iād find local people, and spend the money to switch out bedroom furniture. Even Uhaul and other companies charge by the hour and the person power.
What do you need the movers to do, exactly, as you are just going across the street? Is this something you can do over the course of a couple of weeks lugging a box of dishes at a time, or does it have to be done all in one day?
For a local move, I would just look for local companies. Iāve had luck for that with Craigs List, and with UHaul Moving Help.
Here is my .02ā¦If you are going to hire a mover, donāt bother trying to move anything by yourself other than your very high value stuff. They have the know how and equipment to move boxes quickly that it wouldnāt be worth your while. The way to save money is by packing yourself because the mover would charge you packing materials and time to pack.
@oldfort - I think we are going to have plenty of time to schlep stuff across the street ourselves. We are still debating when we will list our condo here. Iām sure we have more than I realize, but with only 935 square feet of stuff, there isnāt a ton. We would definitely pack ourselves, but it might be worth it to have them move it all in one fell swoop.
Sounds like local is the way to go. And, it does seem that luck plays a big role as well.
When you interview real estate agents, I would ask them about movers. Agents usually have a list of workers they like to work with. Every time Iāve moved, I have used the agents contacts to do some finishing work on the house.
My daughter recently moved. She interviewed a couple of local movers. They had a somewhat complicated move. Two households combined, plus they had to move on a Saturday because of work schedules and the buildings rules. I know she picked the more expensive option because they were insured and were less scheduled.
I would also think about what you really want to move since the place you are buying is furnished and you have the option to sell the place you have also furnished. It can get really expensive to move stuff lol! Would it make sense to buy new if you only have to move a few things?
@deb922 - we bought all new furniture for our current place when we made this condo our permanent home in 2018. So, our stuff is fairly newish anyway. But, it is certainly a good point.
@Hoggirl - We ended up buying House2 before putting House1 on the market. Every time we went to check on the ānewā house, we would take some stuff with us. We never really packed anything, not even wine glasses. Just put everything into a box or bag or directly into the trunk, drive 10 miles, and unload. Then repeat. We left just enough stuff, mostly furniture, in House1 for staging purposes. Slept on the new mattress we bought for the new place and ate at the kitchen island for a couple of weeks until the place sold. Then we moved the furnitureā¦ only had to ask for help when moving a granite top table.
I highly recommend moving as much as you can yourself. Leave the heavy stuff to the pros. No need to pay for packing materials if the move is local and you have plenty of time.
When we moved locally twice, once H and his friend literally moved us down the hall from a one bedroom place to a two bedroom place. They did it all and used a handtruck and luggage cart (we didnāt own that much furniture). The second time we asked around and found a company that everyone we asked had been happy with. The other time, we moved about 15 miles and along the way, moved our couch from our place to my Hās parentās house and moved the dining table down from their home to our home, so altogether three different places were involved, one of which had 66 steps from street to front door. The movers were excellent and everything was put where we wanted it.
Prior to the move, I had moved the kitchen bit by bit, since we owned the house plus weāre renting the apartment. It was easy to just pack up a bit into our vehicle and drive over to watch how the hardwood floor was coming in the installation, setting things exactly where we wanted them in the kitchen. (The kitchen retained the sheet vinyl flooring we prefer.)
As usual, we prefer not to choose service providers based only on going with the cheapest but the one that everyone recommended.
We were out of state for two years, and moved back with UHaulās version of pods. We needed to find a local contractor to pick up our pods from the UHaul location, unload at our home, and then take the pods back to UHaul. I asked the manager at UHaul location that was going to receive our pods for recommendations. That person was happy to do that, and gave me feedback on a couple of the teams listed with UHaulās MovingHelp website. I went with āThey arenāt the most expensive, and they arenāt the cheapest, but Iāve heard only good things, not one complaint, about Mr. X and his team.ā
@BunsenBurner - oh, we will absolutely move quite a bit ourselves. Itās really just the furniture. We are still trying to decide when we are going to list our current place. We are scheduled to close on the new place July 9th. If I had my ādruthers weād just wait until after we moved to list, but dh doesnāt want to do that. Itās primarily complicated by the fact that both places are furnished. Itās the swapping around and mixing and matching of furniture that make it complicated.