Moving To NC-Relocating to NC, and want to cut moving expenses? (packing, moving company)

[Tobefrank]

Looking for ways to cost moving expenses? I will present some of the easiest ways, but you have to pay attention, and get involved.Renting a moving truck and doing it yourself. Yes, I am talking about the entire move. The thing that you equate with a visit to the dentist-----MOVING! Moving can be stressful, and can take a toll on your body for days after the move, even if you never lift a piece of furniture. The whole process of organizing, coordinating, and scheduling the procedure can be grueling. Many people choose to recruit family and friends for the move, in an attempt to save some cash, and defray moving cost. Ironically, it seems that everyone mysteriously has something to do when it's time to move, now that you have a fully furnished home. Or, your last experience didn't go as planned, when you mixed beer, friends, and your furniture. Huge gashes in your walls, furniture, and floors, attest to their neglect. O.K. you don't want to go that route again, but you are interested in moving on a shoestring budget. One the most common ways to defray the cost is to rent your own moving truck and hire professional movers to perform the labor. You will discover that some (not all moving companies) will jump at this offer because their trucks are not involved, thus they save on gas and travel expenses. Many moving companies in the NC area will not participate in this type of moving because of liability issues, and the fact that they want to cash in those travel fees, and other hidden charges. However, some companies offer labor services of this nature, and can assist with loading and unloading rental trucks. In some cases, they have relationships with rental truck providers to get you the best deals on rentals and supplies. some also carry a full line of moving supplies. All of this is offered in an attempt to help you defray cost. Of course, doing it yourself can be the cheap route, but you have to know the ins and outs of the industry. This can be accomplished by aligning yourself with qualified movers in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel-Hill area. PM me on great referrals.

But wait, it does not stop there! Lets say you are relocating long distance. If you have relocated long distance before and used a traditional moving company, you know that the rates are ridiculous. The rates change from hourly, to a weight based system. Therefore, you are looking at poundage instead of hourly. We are talking thousands of dollars, and in most cases you are waiting for your items to catch up with you in your new state/location. When you get involved with your move you can expedite your shipment, and know exactly when your items will be there. Here's another scenario. You loaded your own belongings with the help of friends in another town and now you need someone to unload your rental at your new location in the NC area. In some cases they can have a crew there to unload your rental truck, and get you settled in the same day. You can see how convenient these services can be once you know the industry and get connected.

Oh, I almost forgot. Another thorn in the side of traditional moving outfits is the emergence of PODS, UPACK, PACKRATS, and other portable-on-demand storage units. These units are great if you need some time to organize things, or store furniture for awhile. These companies also load/unload these units, and can provide assistance when it comes to orchestrating the move. This is a great option for the do-it-yourself-er. Compare your options to see which alternative cost less, and works well with your schedule and budget. We have found that both options by these companies presented are substantially cheaper than VANLINES, BENKINS, ATLAS, and other big outfits.

I would love to hear more information about how some of you saved on your move using some of the techniques above. Also, I would love to hear your moving horror stories. Many people come on the forum attempting to get information about the area, and movers. I hope this bit of info can help them avoid money pits and other unscrupulous practices.

[joe530]

So, is this your honest unbiased opinion or are you just trying to sell your business service here to us?

[gizmobizmo]

I have a couple of out-of-state moves under my belt and you offer some good advice. My first move was a complete nightmare that I will only relive for you if I can huddle under my blankie while clutching my stuffed bear for comfort. (Shudder)

Being the disgustingly organized person that I am, I started de-cluttering and packing up my house, room by room, three months in advance. I gave so much to Goodwill they considered paying me. LOL
I made one ENORMOUS mistake though that I will never, ever repeat. I left it up to my hubby to rent the trucks and organize the "labor" who would be moving us.

Silly me, I tried to interject some advice but Nooooooooo, HE had it under control. Well, guess what??? Old boy didn't have a clue. We were moving a 4 bedroom house, 3 cars, 2 motorcycles, a dog and cat and us. He actually thought we were going to get everything in that BIG U-Haul truck. Excuse me while I laugh hysterically, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.............Ummmm, pro movers would have shown up in a semi and we had this itty-bitty 26 foot truck. (I expanded my rather impressive reportoire of curse words that day)

The only way a four bedroom house could fit in that truck was if we were Smurfs! Moving day came and the "labor", (professional movers) said..."Ain't no way that's gonna fit in that truck."
I could feel the steam coming out of my ears and the vein in my temple was throbbing. We ended up renting a second U-Haul and a POD at the last minute and paid out the nose. We also had to borrow another one of our friends for a couple days to drive that extra truck since me and hubby were driving our cars. (We had to bribe them with the promise of food.) I still shudder when I think of them stuffing my cute little motorcycle next to the washer in the truck because there was no other place for it.

At least our little convoy looked cute rolling down the highway. I, however, had the joyous job of transporting 2 animals. Yippee! Thank God for drugs! For them, not me, although I do admit to eyeing the pill bottle with longing a time or two. My poor stoned animals gave me these long, drug-induced stares for hours on end. At least it was better than a chorus of meowing, whining and barking. One did poop in the car though. Too high to ask to go potty, I guess.

That move cost twice as much as the one where I hired professional movers to pack and move my house. The best part........No heavy lifting for me, no headaches, no losing things amidst a sea of tissue paper, newspaper and packing supplies because EVERYTHING was packed the day before it was loaded up. The night before the move, my feet were propped up and I had a cold beer in my hand. Ahhhhhhhh! I will NEVER move myself again.

I learned A LOT from that experience and have posted some of my moving tips before. I can't even begin to stress how important is is to Prepare, Organize and Research everything before a move. The headaches you save up front will prevent a murder later on. Trust me.

[flyingscotsman]

When I moved up from Miami, we where looking at renting a penske truck at the time it was going to cost approx $1800 doing it ourselves, we had 5500lbs worth of stuff.

Went to a broker and had the stuff picked up on Friday adn delivered on Monday, with us packing, they where picking up boxes and furntiure, total cost ended up approx $2300, it was worth the $500 for them doing it.

[Tobefrank]

No, as stated I would love to hear your horror stories, if you have any. Also, if someone was interested in such providers I would give them a personal referral. I hope that the post is beneficial to those looking to relocate, because clearly you can save money doing it yourself. Many people are just intimidated by the sheer volume of what they have, and opt to hire a bigger moving outfit. I was just trying to add a post about something that I am familiar with in hopes that people can benefit. This is my opinion based on years of experience, and first hand knowledge about relocating. Also, emphasis in my post was placed on doing it yourself. People can easily take the moving company out of the equation, and use PODS-PACKRATS-etc. They will still save considerably, although this will put them back in the realm of beer and damage. Lol. Do you have a moving horror experience?

[Priorityonecb]

We don't. We moved ourselves from Colorado to NC with no problems. The only stress really came during unloading day in late June when it was hot but we chose to move during the summer so it's our own fault!

[gibbie99]

I posted this yesterday, here is my story. I'm not complaining, it could be worse. The reason we didn't move our furniture ourselves is because we had a moving expense for my wife's new job, and we were extremely busy in the last weeks up to the move. However, if i were to do it over, i'd schedule at least a week (more like two) for moving, spend several days packing if you don't have time to do it ahead of time, pack up everything, and move. What we did was having the movers come Wed., Thur/Fri we stayed at a friend's place, Sat. AM my wife took a board exam, then after that we hoofed it. Anyway this is my tale.

When we moved from Houston we had a reputable local company pack us up, and a national company ship it. I think that's how it usually works. I think the co. was Atlas. Anyway the packing went fine, but the driver swore up and down he would get there in 3-4 days, it ended up being 10 days. Not techcnically late since that was the last day of the contract. We also ended up with other people's stuff, and we were missing two boxes (which apparently missed inventorying). And several things were broken.

I think you just need to be aware of these things and have some sort of insurance (we had none), be aware that for every box you pack they will load hundreds of pounds of stuff on top of that, and it will shift in transit. I'd almost rather do it myself now if I were going to do it over. You can always pay some guy a few hundred bucks to unload the truck, and that way you know you are going to be able to use your stuff. It was very very hard for us to pack up full to the gills two cars, drive 2000 miles, then sleep in sleeping bags without tables or chairs or any furniture for almost two weeks. (this would be my other advice, expect to survive two weeks without your stuff).

[Tobefrank]

You know you hit it on the head when you spoke about PREPARATION, ORGANIZING, AND RESEARCH.
Just by looking at the items in your house you would think that you will have enough room, only to discover that you are out of space. I know that you were angry. Your post had me cracking up because I know this was a domestic dispute. In some cases a pro-outfit may be the way to go, when you calculate your own sweat equity.

[Tobefrank]

That was a good deal.

[Tobefrank]

gibbie99, you touched on a key point that I tried to make concerning waiting on your items. Here is some more information regarding the bigger outfits. You may get the impression that this is a personal service when you speak to a representative but the role of that big ol truck is to get as much inside it as possible. They are in the business of selling space. The more the better. That moving truck will drop off, pick up, and probably repeat that process again before it reaches the intended destination. It is not profitable for a truck to go to one location without something to go back. With that said, there is room for delays, mix ups, and damage. One couple I consulted recently experienced severe MOLD DAMAGE to their belongings. Mind you, they were waiting for two weeks, after they were told 3-4 days. This was an elderly couple in their late sixties. I posted this for the sake of empowering people to take control of what they can. This will minimize confusion, mix ups, and outright bull. Moving can be stressful, and the last thing you need is another stressful event. The next thing comes with the bureaucracy, and chain-of-command that you will have to go through in order to file a claim. You were right it could be worse, but still you have survived horror. Imagine this though, the movers arrive then they demand a hefty fee in order to ransom your belongings. Extortion on top of insult. Trust me. It happens.