Long distance moving company
 

Hi,

My wife and I are starting to plan the logistics for our fall move to the Villages full time.
We have looked at the cost of various ways to do it but each method seems wildly expensive. Full service moving companies seem to quote $6000 to $10000, those u-pack pods are around $4000, and even a uhaul rental from New England was $3600.

Does anyone have a reliable company that they used to move long distance where they felt they got good value?

Is there anyone from New England moving down this fall/winter and should we split a moving truck to save some costs?

I know people say don't bring your stuff with you and just buy new, we are not even bringing that much furniture, probably 4 to 5 pieces of furniture at most but we have so many totes filled with clothes, sporting equipment, mementos from over the years so we don't want to downsize any further until we get into our new house.

Thanks in advance

I had good luck with Upack. They came when I asked, picked the loaded trailer up within an hour of when we packed it; dropped it off on the day I asked; after unloading by the Village Mover, Upack came within an hour and took the empty trailer away. $2500 for 18 ft of the trailer from the midwest. I didn't want my stuff loaded and unloaded off of the truck etc like the big national movers do. The Village Movers also did an excellent job of unloading and assembling the beds, etc. Best of luck and bring whatever makes you happy.

There is a reason why people say don't bring a lot of stuff with you and it's because almost everyone who lives here brought way too much stuff and regrets paying to ship stuff that they later donated to Goodwill. I totally get how hard it is to get rid of stuff but my advice would be to try really hard to prune your belongings. You will be glad you did!

Good luck with your move.

kathy

Complaints about moving companies abound. My sister worked for a moving company in their finance section. So I had the inside information.

What you experience they send over a salesman titled an estimator. He pulls out his laptop punches in what you have. A couch for example his program says a couch on average weighs xxxxxxx. His estimate is based on estimated weight. They file with the government something called tariff weight-cost per hundred pounds for so many miles.
They will never tell you that. You get several estimates from movers, and it is simple math to determine the tariff rate. You will discover they are very close.

The gotchas. If, the salesman under estimates the weight his bid will be lower. On the highway you will pass signs that say weigh station. You will not be the only one on the truck. They weigh the truck when it leaves and many times on the trip. Your bill is the actual weight of your stuff. If, your estimate was deliberately or not under estimated they will shake you down for the additional charges before delivering your goods.
If, you refuse, they will charge you to store your goods. Not sure of how it works but eventually they can seize you goods and sell them at auction.

Insurance? The included insurance is, if I recall fifteen cents per hundred pounds.
If, I recall our tariff rate was fifty seven cents per hundred pounds. Keep it sell it, toss it,
if, it wasn't worth .57 a hundred pounds, I sold it, tossed it or gave it away. I am a pack rat. We were in the same house for about 40 years. We planned our retirement over two years. I sold stuff on ebay, had 5-6 garage sales etc. Roughly 20,000 dollars worth.
Money is far lighter to move than all that stuff.
Advice-I would purchase full replacement insurance and I would take digital photos of each item in inch box. Should items get broken, your proof that it was in the box and that it was well packed and not broken. In numbered each box, we had over 200 of them, along with what was in each box. The mover will apply their own numbers. They will not deliver them in numerical order. They will had you a bill of lading and expect you to sign it was all there and it arrived in good condition. If, you sign that and discover one box or two are missing or as we did that any damaged boxes were turned so you could not see the smashed side etc, they gotcha, you signed the were all there and in good condition.
Estimates-there are two major movers that are actually the same company. Both say they can't accurately determine your weight so they will add in extra weight and you will be credited back in the end. Another gotcha, they don't tell you the tariff charge is .57 per hundred and the credit is .13 per hundred. I didn't read that part either. The gotcha was roughly $800. Many, most do not fight and they know that is so. I got my $800 refunded.

We used a POD when we moved here from California. Worked out great - the POD was picked up on time and delivered to our driveway on time. No one touches your stuff except you. Not cheap, but the cheapest of the alternatives.

Our move was a roughly 24 hour drive. Wife does not drive. So I took three eight hour drives. Do you want to do that in a truck and then face unpacking?

Will your wife appreciate loading stuff onto a rented truck and then unloading after a three day drive?

Our adventure we hired pros. They hired whatever they could find on both ends.
From our sold home their people did not know that my large armoire comes apart.
How it go up the stairs on the way in 40 years ago. They tried to carry it down the stairs in one piece. Damaging both the furniture and the freshly painted painted walls and iron rails. That piece of furniture must have been haunted. On arrival in the villages, different people same company their guy dropped it into our brand new wall and punched a hole into the sheet rock 6-8 inches across.

I have a heavy woodworking table. It was delivered to our living-room. Different world view. It was perfect there. You do not need to bend to open boxes etc. We did not move our couches so plenty of room for it. Wife not happy. She tried to move it by herself.
When, I finished laughing it had to show her, I built it to come apart, all the pieces are numbered so it goes back together. The heaviest piece is the top solid oak butcher block with two vices on it. I had to call my neighbor wife, at about 110 lbs could not pick up the light end. Hum, I will bet she would have move the whole thing herself or die trying.

if you are coming from new england, as we did, please stay far away from Father&Son moving. it was possibly the worst experience ever. delivery was a MONTH late with several items missing

We rented a uhaul 10’, and they gave us a 15’ for same price. Truck was $745. Brand new truck, very comfortable.
Two guys to unload here, $150. Uhaul has load and unload people very reasonable. Our next trip will need a small 10’, and plan to use uhaul. But May use a pod for the rest of our items.

I don’t drive so other half drives the 18 hours straight. But we do that twice a year, so not a big deal.

On a note, right now furniture and appliances are at a premium. So glad we didn’t listen to the “Sell everything” and buy new. We would be sitting on the floor. Plus we love our furniture, it well made, and not the veneer you find today, and it goes well in our homes. Not a fan of the Florida look.

Upack has both trucks and pods. I used the pods for a small move from Texas to Georgia. I only needed one pod. They sent two. They said their experience was people under estimated how much they would be moving and it was better to have two on site than be calling in a panic needing a second pod. I only used the one pod, but I thought that was pretty good customer service.

I could track the pod as it moved across country. It chased me on I-20 the whole way. When I was ready to receive it, they delivered it by appointment. When I was done, they picked it up by appointment. Easy peasy.

I've done a lot of moving through my life. I know how to load a truck. It is an art. I also know that insurance isn't worth a rip. I've had great moves and really bad moves. You just never know what you get until you are finished.

Here are my tips:
Buy packing supplies and boxes from Uhaul store. Get lots of reams of their packing paper. Anything you don't use can be returned.
Lots of small boxes are better than large boxes, but get a variety.
Get your tape from Office Depot, a tape gun and a lot of 10 packs of bankers boxes.
You will need a sharpie and an exacto knife.
Those really huge wardrobe boxes carry a ton of clothing, not just hang up clothes.
Pack your own boxes yourself.
Mark the boxes with your sharpie with a full description of what is in the box. Also mark with your last name and PBO (Packed By Owner).
Pack a box filled with clean sheets, pillows, blanket, towels, a bar of soap and the coffee pot with a bag of coffee. This way you can get a shower and make the bed after a very long day without searching through boxes for what you need. A fresh cup of coffee in the morning is a treat.
You can save big money by packing 90% yourself. You save money on the materials, you save money on the packers because they charge by the box and you will know where something was packed. You won't end up moving stuff you forgot to pitch out because you packed it.
I always have problems with packing large pictures and mirrors myself. I hire help to do this.
You can also hire help from the Uhaul website for packing, loading, unloading, unpacking, and clean up. They don't get paid until you give them the code.
The downside of the Upack model is the large trucks do not have a low deck. It's an 18-wheeler trailer. But, it's all yours.
I always offer to pay for extra help on loading day. I would rather have extra hands so that the load is set up correctly. It makes for a very long day if there is insufficient loading help and a sloppy job.
Moving is hard. But, organization and the right materials is the key to success.

Good luck with your move. Don't pack your sense of humor in a box. You are going to need it during the move.

You can still buy quality, real wood furniture try the Amish place on 301 by the post office. As far as veneer, even that has been cheapened it is far thinner than it used to be.

Driving 18 hours straight commercial drivers are not allowed to drive that long. Hum is he reading this? Real cost, tolls, fuel. Boat, golf clubs, new fishing rod and shotgun as earned payment?

txs for sharing, I sent you a PM when you have a few seconds please

bring as little as possible. use a POD for whatever you are bringing. I made the mistake of trying to bring a lot and movers low balled my estimate, cost me almost $3,500 from VA and movers stole about 1/3 of my things. My attorney said this was standard practice in their industry.

We moved from New England, we used Pods, very reasonable. Hired someone to load in New England and someone else here. We were very happy with them.

they ripped me off also

sorry it was All In The Family moving

pick three and have them come and talk to you...

You have to weigh the cost of moving to the cost of selling your furniture and starting a new! I sold half of my belonging before moving lowering the cost substantially when I moved from Chicago during the pandemic. Give some thought to selling some of your more heavier items you really don’t need as this will go a long way to reduce costs for transporting . You can also go to UHaul and they will provide you with a proper size truck and packers!

Village mover in Fruitland Park and dont confuse them with The Villages Mover in Ocala which is a scam company. I dont know about their pricing for out of state but a move from TV to Ft Lauderdale was $2200 to pack up your entire house, dishes, knick knacks, furniture everything. The move itself was also $2200 and they will unpack, put all furniture together and they provide all boxes for free. Ithink it was way worth it. If you dont have alot of things, the packing price will be lower.

Ping me. Mgs@mgsnet.net

Thumbs way up for U-Pack
 

My wife and I recently moved from Cleveland, Ohio to TV and had a fantastic experience with U-Pack. They were extremely easy to work with, had friendly, helpful people in both Cleveland and Ocala, and most importantly, kept every promise. The trailer was delivered precisely on time. I was able to track its progress to Florida online. They gave me a guaranteed delivery date, and fulfilled it. A big added plus for me was that they allow motorcycles in the trailer, which saved me the additional expense of having to ship it separately. I give U-Pack an A+

USHip dot com, which I found on the UHaul dot com website. They broker your LTL (less than truckload) shipment to subscribing shippers who bid the job. You choose which bidder. Could be a couple of guys with a Penske rental, or a full service mover with some empty space on the truck, or a specialty hauler with empty space. We had good luck with three shipments, though one guy dropped off my table saw at the wrong location. He showed up a few weeks later with it.

If you’re game for moving yourself, and you have some reason to return to NE after you’ve unloaded at this end, check into price of u-haul rental with drop-off at the same location you picked-up. I recently rented a trailer to haul some things from Mass. Rental cost one-way to TV was over $1k. Alternatively, it cost about $300 to pick-up in TV haul it empty to Mass., and return with load / drop-off at TV. Good luck

I can't help you much with advice on moving companies and I'm not going to give you moving advice (like most of the comments above) but I just wanted to let you know that if you have a car that you need driven down here, that's what I do. I drive snowbirds, renters and just any car that people need relocated anywhere. You can put anything in your car and I will usually drive it here (or there) in a day or 2. I'm a fulltime Villages resident and if you want more information please call Tim @ 810-691-5085.

We moved down 20 years ago and only brought a few pieces of furniture that were my parents or hers plus some luggage with some clothing. If you have the money bring what you want but again and again you will do what this service to yourself if you don't donate everything up north first and just pack some luggage and some photos. PS there is so much used furniture down here already you can pick up some very nice buys at the thrift shops or buy brand new and make your wife happy

We have been professional vagabonds, having moved 27 times. The Navy and my second job (worked for a packaging manufacturing plant) moved us frequently. We have done major household van lines, pods and UHaul. With the latter 2, it is entirely on you to securely pack all the items. Four recommendations .... (1) rent many more packing pads than you think you'll need. They're cheap to rent but they will save your valuables and furniture from damage. The extras can be used to separate fragile pieces from the other furniture or the wall of the truck/pod. (2) If you purchase packing boxes, make sure they are "double-walled" cartons. If you do not know what they are, look at the cut edge on the flap. A double-wall has two distinctly corrugated (i.e., wavy) plies. A single-wall carton has only one. A double-wall carton is a bit more expensive, but is much, much stronger and protects your valuables better. When buying cartons, inspect each one. If you see a crease in the panel or a dent in a corner, don't buy that carton. Likewise, don't use previously used cartons. They are most likely damaged. Dents and creases significantly reduce the weight bearing capacity of the carton. The bottom carton in a vertical stack carries all the weight from the loaded cartons on top of it. You don't want it collapsing and damaging its contents. (3) When loading the truck or pod, place as many of the heavy cartons on the floor. Even the best cartons can collapse with too much weight on top of it and/or the thumping it takes over the road. (4) When stacking cartons, place the same size carton on top of the one below it, aligning the corners above one another. This isn't always possible but it is the best way to load them. If the carton is misaligned or a different size, the cartons above may cause the bottom carton(s) to collapse due to disproportionate weight distribution. Hope this did not scare you about self-moves.

Relative to professional movers, my wife and I were always at the truck and checked each piece of furniture and all boxes for their numbered stickers. We had our list, and the mover had the manifest. Then at the end, we compared the numbers against one another. You obviously want an exact match. (This helps with your insurance claim should a box of valuables or piece of furniture does not show up at the other end.) It also gives you an opportunity to check the coding for dings and scratches on furniture (get familiar with the coding symbols). In one move, we had just purchased a new chair. It was pristine. The mover's manifest was coded for 2 or 3 scratches. I contested the coding. They had a choice of unloading the truck to find the piece or removing the coding. They chose the latter. Lastly, do not ship any valuable jewelry or other expensive items. Pack them in your car, or rent a small trailer and tow it behind your car. In that trailer, pack boxes with a small amount of bed linens/pillows, kitchen utensils, pots, pans and dishes you may need to live in the house while waiting for the shipment to arrive.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

I second that.

We pared down what we had to what we thought was the bare minimum before our move (mainly boxes and sundries as the house we purchased was turnkey), only to find that we had nowhere near the storage space that we needed to comfortably store our belongings when we got here. One of the reasons was the difference in homes: up north basements are common, and much of our stuff resided in our finished basement. Haven't seen many basements in Florida, and those huge walk-in closets get pretty small when boxes take up 2/3 of the space.

We used uhaul ubox and hired local packers on both sides of move, uhaul can supply the packers. They saved us $$$$ and did a great and timely job.

It’s expensive to move stuff to discard later. Why have an attic full of stuff your kids will throw away when you’re gone?🤔

UPACK was great and easy Saved a bundle of money

We also used U-Pac for our move from Nebraska and would use them again if we ever decided to move. Prompt, professional and did not price gouge us at all. you save alot by packing/unpacking yourself, but you can also hire day workers to do this. We were lucky to have strong kids and friends who helped us on the Nebraska end and 2 came with us for the drive to Florida to see our new home and help unpack.
As for new furniture we had no problem getting new living room/dining room, there are lots of furniture stores and also alot of second hand stores that sell nearly new also.

Good luck with your move, its a stressful time for sure but you will be happy moving to Florida- no more winters!

I was in the moving and storage industry for 50 years. Some of the information listed is accurate but much of it is in accurate. Get three estimates from large moving companies and be sure you get a binding or not to exceed estimate. Movers do not sell insurance they sell valuation.

We had an absolutely horrible experience with Mayflower, but my friend had a great experience with PODS! She packed everything and had it ready to go. They sent movers in to pack the POD, picked it up as scheduled, stored it until she was ready for it at the other end. They then delivered it, sent movers to unpack it for me and took the POD.

We sold all and bought new but that was 2019 when furniture was easier to get. The wait time on furniture is long. Bring only what you need. Most of your furniture may not work here. POD’s seem to be the safest and less costly way to go. Many here use POD You can get Villagers Movers to help you unload if need be.

Friends of our recently had Village Movers (the black truck with white lettering) move exactly items that you mentioned from upper NY to The Villages. The movers make trips to the North and make arrangements for the return trip. You have to be flexible with your schedule and know there will be outer loads in the truck. Friends were very satisfied.

Highly recommend Lamparts Moving Service of Corfu, New York. Highly rated, experienced movers. (585) 815-3654

This is FL where almost every day is hot. Won’t need most of northern clothing.
There is NO storage here. Nothing will last if you plan on the garage attic no matter what you do. Anything rubber or plastic will melt or deteriorate. Yes, really!
Men don’t wear suits except to church, sometimes. Women bring way too many clothes in case. Be serious. But most you can’t convince otherwise.
Sporting goods means what. Sell up there and buy new here if and when you need it. It will be fun knowing you have the latest and greatest. Transporting big stuff not worth it.
Besides, get it out of your head that you are still saving for retirement. This is it. Anything you don’t spend before you die goes to ‘entitled kids and relatives’. If Dementia doesn’t get you first, you will be extremely lucky.

My daughter moved. She sold almost all the furniture and appliances, boxed everything else up, Hired some lumpers to load the stuff in a Penski truck. Drove to the Villages and hired lumpers to move the stuff inside. Then bought new furniture to go with the new home. She looked at every method and this was the least inexpensive. According to her, and she is tight-fisted.

Local Firm / Folks to Unload PODS?
 

Who did you use to unload your PODS once U got here?

Who did you use to unload truck once U got here?
 

Who did you use to unload your PODS once U got here?

I used The Villages Relocation Services -- I highly recommend this service. They arrange for two local realtors to sell your home. You select the realtor -- the realtor was professional, offered excellent advice and I got more for the home than I anticipated. They also arrange for three moving companies to come to your home and provide a quote for moving the furniture, etc. You select the moving company. All of my furniture and items arrived without a scratch. I had them pack the dishes and other breakable items -- not one item was broken.

You should give away, sell or whatever the items that you do not want to bring to your new home. Some people on the site have advised you to buy everything new. At this time, there is a long wait for furniture due to supply chain issues.

Good luck with your move to The Villages.