Be very careful who you hire. Daughter moved here 2 months ago...looked at reviews on internet and chose one that had several great ones. Turns out these companies contact anyone with a bad review and pay them to change to a 5 star...they are all brokers and just hire any company that will take the move...her move was a disaster!

Do not use Colonial Van Lines
 

I used Colonial Van Lines, but I had problems every step of the way.
If I had to do it over I would get a pod and fill it myself/friends.

I do see that United Van Lines and Mayflower get good ratings.

I used The Villages Relocation Services -- it does not cost any money to use the service. They arranged for me to interview three moving companies -- I selected one of the companies and there was no damage to any items. I had them pack the dishes and other breakable items. I did move furniture and more than 100 boxes. The moving crew was from Florida. The crew worked non-stop and everything arrived without any damage. Good luck with your move.

We moved from NE PA and used Bekins. No problems. Very little furniture, mostly boxes. When I moved from TV to VA, I used a company called Jiffy Pod. No issues at all.

Totally agree, after our research we found it cheaper to sell everything up North and buy new here. Moved what we brought here ourselves.

keep far away from Father & Son's Moving. they took 4ever to get here, & when they did, we were missing a good number of items still unaccounted for to this day

Be careful! Bait & switch estimates are rampant!
I hired movers in Memphis that are based in Ft Lauderdale but go all over the county.
Try to get someone to come look at your stuff. To tell you what they will pack like mirrors & paintings.
Don’t hire Agility Van Lines.
That is who is moving us to the villages.
They gave me a $7500 estimate then came out to $12500

OMG! that's insane. & you have little recourse, don't you? they have your things, & you want them, so they prob figure you would pay any price. our stuff was 4 MONTHS late; we had to go out & buy a lot of new things, sleeping on an airbed wasn't possible for me.

Best advice I can give you - Cut what you have decided to ship in half❗️ Florida is a totally different climate and your big, dark heavy furniture and other stuff that fit so well up north won’t look right in Florida. You will want “Florida style” furniture and clothes. We used a pod to move and spent less than $2,000 and still brought too much stuff. Good luck. 🥰

Wow did you have any recourse to them?

Please google any moving company you plan to use. There will be thousands of horror stories. There are all kinds of bait and switch and extra charges. Once you hire the company they subcontract out everything and they are looking to do it as cheaply as possible to maximize their profit. When we moved here in 2019 the horror stories of the industry convinced us to not use them.

The best and cheapest way is to throw out / give away as much as possible. Then rent a truck yourself for the remainder. Hire someone to load the truck and hire Village Movers down here to unload. Very reasonable prices. If you don’t want to drive a truck the next cheapest option is a pod type deal. Again, hire to load and unload and dump as much as possible.

Amazing how so many movers get away with stealing from their customers.

Van line recommend
 

We moved from Massachusetts to the villages in March.

We got 4 quotes and Wheaton Vanlines was the best.

They came to our home and boxed up items which we did not box and they used moving blankets for the furniture. The packers were employees of Wheaton and they were great.

Upon arrival they unloaded and everything was in great shape. We did not have to file any claim for damage. I would recommend them anytime.

Jimmay,

I also am moving from the DC area down to TV and could use some of your insight on the moving industry.
My plan is to hire a moving company to load all my furniture and boxes and then store it here (DC) or maybe there, haven't decided that yet. We will rent for a month or two down at TV and will look to buy soon. Once we find a house to purchase we will need to contact the moving company and make arraignments to have it all shipped down to TV. Any thoughts, tips or advise?

Thank you, John ( User name OU812 )

:bigbow::bigbow:Highly recommend ABF. They use pods, yet they are placed inside a regular freight trailer, enclosed,not exposed to the elements,suchas PODS. Excellent results and experience WE even arranged a load and unload service through them .