Making the Move

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Old 06-07-2019, 07:25 PM
fbbarbara fbbarbara is offline
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Default Making the Move

My wife and I are buying a large home in Fenney and are moving from a large home in Pennsylvania. We are looking for any tips like moving companies vs. pod companies, any moving companies you recommend, and how much you moved yourself. We totally understand the concept of getting rid of as much as possible before the move, but there will still be many home items we want to bring down. Any tips would be appreciated.

Frank
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Old 06-08-2019, 08:21 AM
DAVES DAVES is offline
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Default Hints re: Move

My view includes information from my sister who used to work for a moving company. My experience, my view is based on long distance movers not PODs.

You will likely call for estimates. They send a SALESMAN. He/she looks over your stuff armed with a laptop and gives you an estimate. That estimate is based on, "estimated." weight. Obviously, if they underestimate the weight the estimate for the move will be lower. It means NOTHING. In the contract you sign
it gives them the right to adjust the weight and the price based on actual weight. Have you ever noticed signs on the highway that say weigh station? The truck must get off and get weighed on a regular basis. Whatever the quote is, what you pay is actual weight not what they estimated. They will duck the question.
Likely they will not tell you. What you want to know is THE TARIFF WEIGHT PRICE. This number is filed with the government overseer. You can easily calculate it as the estimate they leave you is estimated weight and estimated quote.
You will likely, as we did, get three estimates. Mayflower and United Van lines will tell you that they will overestimate the weight but credit you back later so it doesn't matter if they are higher. No one, INCLUDING ME, reads all the fine print. I later discovered that first of all Mayflower and United Van Lines are owned by the same company-corporation. Perhaps, more important my calculated, by me tariff rate was .57. In the fine print, I foolishly trusted the salesman, the credit is .13. The difference due to his stated overstated weight came to, if I recall $800 in overcharges.
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Old 06-08-2019, 08:54 AM
DAVES DAVES is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DAVES View Post
My view includes information from my sister who used to work for a moving company. My experience, my view is based on long distance movers not PODs.

You will likely call for estimates. They send a SALESMAN. He/she looks over your stuff armed with a laptop and gives you an estimate. That estimate is based on, "estimated." weight. Obviously, if they underestimate the weight the estimate for the move will be lower. It means NOTHING. In the contract you sign
it gives them the right to adjust the weight and the price based on actual weight. Have you ever noticed signs on the highway that say weigh station? The truck must get off and get weighed on a regular basis. Whatever the quote is, what you pay is actual weight not what they estimated. They will duck the question.
Likely they will not tell you. What you want to know is THE TARIFF WEIGHT PRICE. This number is filed with the government overseer. You can easily calculate it as the estimate they leave you is estimated weight and estimated quote.
You will likely, as we did, get three estimates. Mayflower and United Van lines will tell you that they will overestimate the weight but credit you back later so it doesn't matter if they are higher. No one, INCLUDING ME, reads all the fine print. I later discovered that first of all Mayflower and United Van Lines are owned by the same company-corporation. Perhaps, more important my calculated, by me tariff rate was .57. In the fine print, I foolishly trusted the salesman, the credit is .13. The difference due to his stated overstated weight came to, if I recall $800 in overcharges.
Insurance-reminder my info is five years old and based on memory.
By law, the moving quote includes minimal insurance. If, I recall it is like ten cents per hundred pounds. Your couch, say it weighs 150 lbs. If, they loose it, destroy it or? If is covered for FIFTEEN CENTS. Buy full replacement insurance. If, I recall it cost us ????
$600. When, where, why there was so much damage to our stuff, I can only guess. Typically, ours was not the only stuff on their huge truck. Apparently stuff was not properly secured in the truck and it slid around. My industrial quality steel desk was destroyed-crushed. My antique, table lost some carving. Driver CLAIMED he had noticed it was not there. Three boxes were never delivered to Florida, You too should take pictures of everything in each box. Otherwise any claim the moving company will and should ask you to prove it. I took pictures of everything before the move-A GOOD IDEA BY THE WAY. I went on to his truck and found what was left of the carving on the floor of his truck.
You will, as we did, number each box and on an inventory sheet record what was in each box. Based on our experience, the mover will apply their own numbers which will not match yours. They will simply deliver a pile of boxes to your home and expect you to sign on their bill of lading. DO NOT SIGN-by signing you agree that you received all the goods in good shape-YOU HAVE NO CLAIM FOR DAMAGES. Of course the driver will TRY to insist. Put as I did before your signature that you received a pile of boxes in no order and you were not allowed to count or inspect the shipment

Moving can be an adventure. Oh one last thing, this one went fine for us. Your delivery says ON OR ABOUT. You want to be at your new home before your goods arrive. Suggest you have an air mattress or???????
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Old 06-08-2019, 09:39 AM
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dewilson58 dewilson58 is offline
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A lot of on-line companies just broker the load and it's possible three or four companies could handle your items. Make sure the company knows your address in TV and if a 18 wheeler will be able to get to your house. They charge to transfer to a straight truck for "local delivery".



I know you know.........but understand the cost to ship individual items like: beds, washer/drier, dining room sets. The cost (PCF) can be expensive and they are not worth moving.


Watch out for charges for wrapping the beds.
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Old 06-08-2019, 10:20 AM
Dan9871 Dan9871 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fbbarbara View Post
We totally understand the concept of getting rid of as much as possible before the move, but there will still be many home items we want to bring down.
Before we moved here, we thought we understood the concept of getting rid of as much stuff as possible, but once we got here, we realized we didn't. We got rid of a lot, but nowhere near enough.

We had an excellent experience using United Van Lines. But we didn't just call United Van Lines we hired a specific company and crew. It was one that our realtor herself, and many of her customers had used over many years. We knew they would pick up with a small truck and then transfer to a big van for the trip without doing any storage. It was one truck with one stop before ours. The crew had made many trips to The Villages before. The driver who did the pickup was the same one that did the drop-off.

In the end, it was about a $6000 move, and after being here and shopping a bit, we realized the furniture move made no sense at all. We should have moved just a few sentimental items that we could ship via UPS or FedX and started over from scratch.

By the way, the estimate and the actual cost were very close.
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Old 06-08-2019, 10:29 AM
John_W John_W is offline
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I moved from Maryland to TV in July 2011. First I checked into PODS and ABF (Arkansas Best Freight) Cubes. I found the ABF Cubes were a little smaller than PODS, but I could get 4 cubes for about the price of 1 or maybe 2 PODs. Of course this is 8 years ago and things may have changed. You can see the ABF is smaller.

The Villages Florida

Then I called a local mover who had Mayflower and United Van Lines services. I sold most of my furniture to the buyer of my home, but kept the M/BR set since it was almost new, and household goods and clothes, and anything on the wall (pictures, etc) because those are expensive to replace. I had 71 boxes. They sent over the appraiser and he estimated a cost of $3400. Since I estimated 4 cubes to cost $2800, I decided to go with the mover since I didn't have to do any work except load my boxes at my house.

Then a couple of weeks later when we were ready, they send a truck with a couple of workers and loaded everything. Called me when they got back to their warehouse and told me with the actual weight, it would be $2700, that's $700 less than their estimate. Said call them back when were are ready in Florida and they will send the items, in the meantime they sat in storage at their warehouse. I told them I'm closing on Tuesday July 5th, so just deliver everything on Friday July 8th.

We closed July 5, 2011 as scheduled and called the movers. They said they had no trucks coming to Florida at the moment, but would keep us advised. We went to Sam's Club and bought a queen air mattress for $30 and with our clock radio for music, we were ready to wait. Spent a lot of evenings at the square and eating out twice a day.

As it turned out, they didn't get a truck to Florida for almost three weeks. They combine smaller loads like ours since we didn't fill a whole trailer. They had three combined loads on one United Van Lines Tractor trailer. South Caroline, The Villages and Tampa. After 21 days it was delivered, and it was amazing he brought that big tractor trailer into our Courtyard Villa community the last street. Nothing was damaged but for a couple of artificial trees. However, since they were 16 days late from their promised delivery date, they gave us a refund of $125 a day. They told us to give the driver a certified money order for $2700 and we would get a refund later.

The mover in Baltimore then gave me a claims email address in Chicago of Mayflower Van Lines, they said they would provide the refund. They delivered our goods on Sunday, I emailed the company in Chicago on Monday, and on Friday in my mail box was a check for $2,000. So the whole move cost me $700.
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Old 06-08-2019, 12:04 PM
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We used United van lines (around 6 years ago) and the SAME truck and crew were in Florida to unload the furniture, NO transfer station. This was a big deal as there is much less possibility of damage or lost items. Also, we had a FIXED price contract, and the load was heavier then they estimated and we did NOT get hit with the additional charge.
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Old 06-08-2019, 02:45 PM
mtdjed mtdjed is offline
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Don't know what you mean by large home. We moved from a center entrance colonial 3400 sq ft of living space and a full basement 9 ft ceiling 30 X 40 Ft as well as a 30 X 40 ft standup attic. We moved into a 2000 sq ft living area with no basement or attic. Long story short, we made the trip with 1 POD and still brought too much.

As I look around now, I don't see much left of what we did bring ( Card table and chairs, tray tables, a few pictures, some fancy mirrors)


We decided early on that Florida styles did not fit with our existing furniture. Why bring 15 year old mattresses, TVs or furniture unless truly an antique.


Also made a decision that you don't get rich on selling used furniture, treadmills, pool tables etc. Got rid of the volume and freshened up the look.


Good luck, and enjoy the process.
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Old 06-08-2019, 09:33 PM
valuemkt valuemkt is offline
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Large home in Villages = 2000-2500 sq ft. on a slab. Large home in Pennsylvania = 5000-6000 sq ft on a full basement. So we're starting with trying to put 20 or 30 pounds of "stuff" into a 10 pound bag. As someone that just did that kind of downsizing, I can tell you that you have at least two more iterations of getting rid of stuff to go. tchotchke's (chotskies), books that look great is all those bookcases you have, boxes of stuff "for the kids", and sturdy furniture that has no place in Florida .. 75% needs to be left behind.. The day before the movers came, I filled up 1 3/4 16 foot step vans with my last pass of stuff that didnt make the cut. That was after selling stuff, trying to donate good furniture to Salvation Army (never again), etc and finding that furniture, no matter how good of condition its in, is of zero to little value.. the younger generation likes put together IKEA over Ethan Allen and THomasville. We had bought a turn key designer several years ago (2100 sf) and have decided to build in Monarch Grove (2900) later this year. So we still filled a 26 ft truck with stuff that will allegedly go into the new house. (i doubt it). so I secured a storage space at Extra Space Storage .. what appeared to be a monster space of 10x25 .. hired a company called ZIP Moving, and scheduled a 2 stop move. First to the storage facility, then to our existing house. Our final moving cost was about what we initially figured, but about 3K over their initial quote. Couldnt believe how many boxes we ended up with .. We must have enough towels and pillows to fill a small hotel. About half of the boxes we dropped off to the house have already been returned to the storage locker, which is now about 85% full .. and good luck getting to the back of that locker.. You've just built a new house .. probably your last one .. why pay to move furniture that will look out of place down here .. Leave it .. save money on the move, and put it towards making your new home look fresh and new with furnishings too .. you asked for Tips .. thats my opinion. See you at Everglades later this year
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Old 06-09-2019, 01:40 PM
KSSunshine KSSunshine is offline
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Some moving companies (e.g. United, Northern...) have a "not to exceed" quote which is what we used. We had quotes from two national companies even though they subcontract with local movers for the actual packing. And even though they packed more than what I requested, we still came in under their estimate, though not by much. (We were also having an estate liquidator sale after the van pulled out; hence some of the confusion). Since we didn't have a home to move into when the truck arrived, everything went into a climate controlled storage unit near us. I'm glad we didn't bring a lot of the furniture or accumulated bits of "stuff" and are starting over. But that's a good thing since downsizing by 1500 sq ft. We brought the unreplaceable family items and about half of our kitchen.
Also paid full insurance, and while we didn't need it...a new neighbor told us about their moving truck wrecking on 95...and they were about 3 miles behind the truck in a long line when they got the call, then saw their belongings scattered and destroyed along the highway. Totaled everything! Better safe...than super sorry! Best wishes with your move. And...see you at Everglades to

PS...Looked at PODS as well, but with a slight increase in cost to have someone else pack us up, it was WELL worth it!
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Old 06-09-2019, 05:11 PM
OrangeBlossomBaby OrangeBlossomBaby is offline
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We've chosen the DIY route. Hubby has a pickup truck with a cap on the bed. I have a small 5-door hatchback. We have a friend with a small (4x6) trailer. Hubby's truck has a trailer hitch. So we're taking a couple of trips down with stuff, and having yard sales every weekend to get rid of everything we can, that isn't coming with us. Our total liveable space is larger in our Villages home, but our northern home has a full basement. I'm hoping we won't have much left to deal with once our northern house is sold, but we won't have the room or the means to bring it all south. So it'll end up on the curb, or donated.
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Old 06-10-2019, 12:50 PM
Dond1959 Dond1959 is offline
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We went with uhaul. We sold and gave away a lot and still filled a 20 foot truck. We hired people on both ends to load and unload. I drove the truck and took my time, not bad. It cost about 1/3 of the quotes we received from full service movers. Lots of issues with full service movers, just google it.
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Old 06-10-2019, 01:15 PM
charmed59 charmed59 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by valuemkt View Post
Large home in Villages = 2000-2500 sq ft. on a slab. Large home in Pennsylvania = 5000-6000 sq ft on a full basement. So we're starting with trying to put 20 or 30 pounds of "stuff" into a 10 pound bag.
I don’t know what the OP considers a large house but I do know Premier homes run larger, sometimes much larger than 2500 sq feet. Some models run up to 3800 sq ft, and I’ve wandered into homes here in the Villages that were well over 4000 sq ft.

We are one of those apparently rare couples that over downsized. We should have brought the tools and saved more Christmas decorations...
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Old 06-10-2019, 03:22 PM
BoatRatKat BoatRatKat is offline
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The moving company was horrendous. Came in the evening, announced we needed to buy them a couple of pizzas with pepperoni or they wouldn't have the strength to work and didn't finish loading up until midnight at which time they announced they had underestimated the weight and the cost was double the quote. There was nothing we could do but pay it. When we got down here and were waiting for them, a strange guy showed up and said he had answered a job posting on Craigslist to help unload a truck at our address. Class operation. Several pieces of furniture were damaged or completely broken and much of the hardware was missing. If we had to do it all again I would get a pod and also unload much more of the furniture before we moved. We had gotten rid of about 75% and should have done about 95%. Of the 25% we brought, about 20% ended up at Bargains and Treasures with everyone else's furniture that they brought down and no longer wanted.
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Old 06-12-2019, 05:12 PM
Xcuse Xcuse is offline
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The Villages is surrounded by dozens of used furniture shops that are full of the stuff that people thought they couldn't do without before they hauled it all down here at great expense and then discarded. Look carefully at what you plan to bring down and then get rid of most of it.
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