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How to Select a Moving Company

Moving Company – Movers – Moving Professionals – Local Real Estate Agents

Moving can be stressful and certainly a bit complicated whether you are moving into a new house on the other side of town or if you are being relocated halfway across the country. Most of the stress associated with the thought of packing every worldly possession you have and loading it into a truck to then stand by the driveway watching that same truck pull away and soon out of sight. Yikes! Well, just like most anything, if you do your homework, have some good planning and certainly organization skills you will be just fine. It truly is an adventure and should be approached with the same attitude.

Like any good adventure, starting with the planning process will uncover most of your questions and address most of your concerns. You need to ask yourself, what am I actually looking for? A good driving record? Helpful polite workers? They actually know the new address? As far as reality goes, the hard part is over, which is first deciding if you want to move, then traveling the new area looking at home options, going through the whole purchasing chaos, realizing you don’t even know where to buy a gallon of milk let alone where and who the new doctor might be. That is the stressful part. Anyway, back to the planning; what goes, what gets given to others and what goes to the curb? This seems simple but it isn’t, just like everyone always says when doing this task; where did we get all this stuff?

So, let’s assume the sorting of your possessions went well. Now is the time to find that moving company, but not just any moving company, you want the absolute best for your items. You want the best customer service moving professionals out there, they must be careful and treat the cargo as if it was theirs; if not, late Aunt Betsy’s Grandfather Clock wouldn’t fair well if dropped on the sidewalk. So, start the search the easiest way possible, talk to friends and relatives. Someone will know someone that has used a moving company and will tell you exactly how they feel about them. That information must be taken objectively and stored on the side somewhere for now. Remember, when searching for a company to handle a moving project, you always wants to live by the old adage “Trust but verify”, that will keep you safe. Then look for a source; social media, Google search, reviews and websites. Reach out to local real estate agents or home improvement contractors who work with movers every day, they can offer more of a professional perspective.Actually, wouldn’t it be nice if all that information was in one place? And even better if the company actually pre-screened them for you. wink.

Be specific in your calls to potential accounts, ask their process, their pricing and always ask what happens if something goes wrong or gets damaged. This should all be part of your upfront interview for the company you will hire.

Once you narrow it down you need to start a little back checking, remember Trust but Verify? Check their business credentials, contact each company and get their full legal name and ‘doing business as’ (DBA) names, the number of years in business, DOT and state license numbers and ask about their insurances. Check the reviews, especially if there are any negative ones.

Now the time comes for getting estimates on the costs of the move itself. Most of the moving companies will send an in person moving estimator who will walk the home with you and note everything that is going, what if anything will need wrapped and or packed, what will need disassembled and what will need another crew member to assist. They will then explain the details of not only what should be expected on the actual pack up day, but also what will need to be accomplished prior to that day. If you told the estimator all the heavy boxes of books will be neatly stacked in the garage, they better be on moving day because they wrote it down and calculated your estimate from that action. If it changed, so will your price. Then they will explain the unloading procedure, how the movers need directed as to where items should go; and keep in mind the directions are not “on the 2nd shelf in the closet”, they are normally just generalized to rooms; unless of course you are paying to have the items unpacked and put away. And all estimators will leave you with a copy of their paperwork, if they don’t simply take them off the list.

Once all your estimates are complete, all you need to do is analyze what you are getting for how much and how you feel about each company and then simply make your selection, call to schedule the date and wait for the adventure to begin.