Moving
 

Seems very reasonable, but always good to get at least 3 quotes. Personally, I sold all my furniture and bought new when I got here. The dark wood and fabrics of up north don’t look good in Florida. Light woods, soft colors, tropical feel….not heavy looking stuff. I loved getting new stuff. Refreshing.

That's actually a really good price. I got quotes in the $10's to move my stuff out of storage in Houston & drive here, everything was already packed.

I've moved a lot, mostly instate except for moving from Houston to here, but I've always done, which is cheaper, is pack / box up my house, rent the Penske truck (cheaper than U-haul), hire movers to load the truck. Then I drive it to where ever I'm moving, and hire movers to unload the truck. It's a lot cheaper.

HOWEVER, I've always moved within the state of Texas, 3 or 4 hrs moves. When I went home to Houston in August to get stuff out of one of my storage units, I did what I always do, which was more affordable for me. What killed me was the gas!

Because you are in Virginia... Unless you have some really precious and valuable furniture, you can save a lot of money by shipping most things yourself in boxes and putting the rest in your car(s) and getting on the Auto Train. It leaves from Lorton, VA and arrives in Orlando the next morning. Then it is an hour and 15 minute drive to The Villages. We just did this with my in-laws. They serve dinner and breakfast and you get a good night's sleep (we did the room and not the coach seats, not sure how easy it is to sleep in those) and nice views when it is still light out. It was fun. We put all of the large luggage pieces, breakable items, and even their flat screen TV in our cars.

For packing, we went to my in-laws house and went through every item. For the stuff they didn't want to keep (including all furniture that couldn't fit in their car) - we took it to goodwill, gave it away to friends and family, sold it online, or trashed it. We shipped all books through USPS media mail. We shipped everything else with FedEx Ground "Home Delivery" and specified evening delivery so that we could get it after we got off the train and drove to their new home. There were 60 boxes altogether which cost around $2,000 to ship. Two coach seats on the train is $200-500 depending on how far in advance you book. Or a room with bunk beds is $800 or more if you want a private bathroom (not necessary - the bathrooms are like airplane bathrooms anyway). A car is about $250 but can be packed to the gills. Shortly after we arrived in their house, the FedEx truck pulled up with the boxes.

There are lots of thrift stores in this area with good stuff for very reasonable prices. Or you could buy new, or get things shipped from IKEA in Orlando, etc.

Sell as much as you can to reduce the moving cost and buy new when you get here. From reading post on Talk of The Villages most people regret bringing all of their furniture and wind up selling it or donating it anyway just to eventually buy new. Another question, is your stuff worth $8,000??

Leaving all your stuff is okay if your stuff is not worth much to begin with. I have very expensive furniture that cannot be replaced with rooms to go junk. That being said, of course, get rid of as much as possible but measure your new house and your furniture. Also, getting new furniture is getting very difficult. I am dealing with this issue now and feel your pain.

Recently moved
 

We have found that it's cheaper to use a local mover who's not affiliated with a large carrier. Research through the BBB and read reviews carefully. Interview and ask questions. Also, if you can get a floor plan of the house you're moving to, lay out your furniture to see what fits before you move it. Then come on down and enjoy!

It is a good estimate but beware at this time there are movers that will give you a quote then a week before they may raise the price $5000+ at the last moment even with a deposit made. Not all movers are that way but 2 people I know went through that. I used 2 uhaul boxes, 3 bedrooms would probably be 3 to 4 Uhaul boxes and costs starting at $5500 just for comparison across the US from west coast. My cost for 2 was about $4300.
Got a quote from a mover based in Ft. Lauderdale that is one of the companies that have a reputation of saying we need more money to move you. There's was $5,500 but I refused after reading their reviews.

That might be in line.
We moved from central Maryland in December 2018 with Mayflower to TV, with two bedroom house, no appliances and all pre-boxed, and we paid about $5,500. They had a 10 day layover (to consolidate), which was fine, because we stayed with family that already lived here.

Ohiobuckeye
 

We’ll you know the weight is just a guesstimate. I heard someone say a while back that someone had what they thought was a locked in price for moving them & when they got their bill it was several thousand dollars higher because the weight was quite a bit more. So beware!

Thank you for your advice. We are in the same situation where our taste is expensive. Similar to the previous writer who said he was only able to,replace his bedroom set with what he saved.

We’re you nervous about the whole adventure of moving to the Villages as well?

Use PODS
 

If you're planning on doing your own packing use PODS. I've heard too many horror stories about using commercial movers. With PODS you are in control, not the moving company. No stolen or lost household goods.

Great response. We sold 90% of our furniture and moved the rest with pods. Vost was $1500

First of all...welcome to the Villages. Second...I agree with most to declutter and move just a few boxes. I just moved here last month from Chicago and it would have been $8K - $10K. Sold all my OLD furniture for $2500 and negotiated the rest in the closing for $1K. Gave the rest to Salvation Army. Moved 65 boxes with Bekins for $3500. Bought ALL NEW from Kane's Furniture. BEST decision of my life. Love it!! Good Luck.

Moving
 

Paid $7700 three years ago with Bekins for move from Philadelphia area to TV with full pack and unpack. Needed to negotiate. Most IMPORTANT is getting mover with good reputation. Mayflower is one.

We moved with a 15ft UHaul. Sold/gave away all of our furniture before we moved, sold our extra stuff in a yard sale, rented a dumpster and put a ton of stuff in it (literally).
We are glad we didnt keep our northern furniture.

Why does everyone think of you live north, you have heavy Dark furniture. Guess we were never pack rats, what we didn’t want went to the curb for regular garbage pickup. When we put this house for sale, the kids are coming for what they wanted, and the house will be close to empty.

We chose to rent a Uhaul, hired them to load. We packed, because I knew what was in every box. Then hired local to unload. Total cost of furniture move $765 for Uhaul, gas $217, load $195, unload $220. Not one thing damaged. Uhaul had a list of drivers if we wanted one.

We drove ourselves, the Uhaul was not much different than driving a big SUV. Handled well, had great space for small kennel between front seat for our pet. Would do the same exact thing when we move our lake house.

Moving Coasts
 

We moved a year ago. We used United. At the same time a friend moved using Alliance. Alliance's price was lower. Our stuff arrived in perfect condition at the specified time agreed on before hiring them, with nothing missing. My friend's, took months to be delivered and so happened, boxes with crystals disappeared.
My point is when it comes to moving, the best price is not the most important factor. Use a reputable company with good reviews. We strongly recommend considering United Van Lines. It was the second time using them and we were again very happy. Good luck!

You pack it, they break it, you lose. They pack and put on their truck Insure!

Use a POD
 

We are moving right now from Hawaii to our new home in Charlotte. We are using a 16 foot POD and it costs less than your quote. Packing boxes ourselves and hiring muscle on each end of the move to load and unload the POD keeps cost down. Don't bring more than your new home has room for. But bring enough, especially kitchen, bedding, and bath items.<BR>
A POD is also secure, put your own lock on it and send it on its way.

Absolutely agree

We are moving from a 3 bedroom 3 bath 55+ home. We got a quote from 2 local movers and then we used the Villages Relocation Services which gave us 3 additional quotes from Atlas, Mayflower, and United. We ended up choosing United at about $7300 to move us from southeast PA. Our price can’t go higher but it can go lower. We are currently packing ourselves and the movers come on the 12th November. We are taking our living room room furniture which we bought last Fall in very neutral beige and white colors. Perfect for Florida. Our bedroom set was $5000 when we bought it and we couldn’t replace it today for that, plus I love it. We sold our dining room set and washer and dryer. We have a queen Ethan Allen sleeper sofa we are bringing for the 3rd bedroom and a new queen bed and new dresser for the 2nd bedroom. We couldn’t buy any of that today for the same price and we’d have to wait months to get it anyway. We have a brand new upright garage rated freezer we are bringing too. We got rid of A LOT but I do wish we had gotten rid of some more but we can do that down there at the many yard sales. I think for what we are spending at least we have everything we need. And we have our children and visitors coming often, in fact the first week we arrive we have friends coming! We made sure to get a house with a 2 car garage plus a golf cart garage. I think if we didn’t have that I would 100% have gotten rid of a lot more.
Our economy is crumbling. Bring what you need and what you love because who knows what is going to happen to supply chains. With the price of gas everything is costing more! Yes, 2nd hand is also a great way to go but finding the perfect thing isn’t easy.
As far as doing it on your own - Uhaul could not guarantee us a truck when we needed it. Hiring people was also taking a chance because in this environment they may show up and they may not, so how’s that going to work when you have to move out on a set date?
The couple of thousand extra it costs to use a professional gave us peace of mind that we’d be moved and have what we need when we arrive to our new home in a place we absolutely love. I call that priceless.
Blessings on your move. May God give you the guidance and wisdom you need as you prepare.

We did the POD 11 years ago, bringing VERY LITTLE furniture, and we still brought WAY TOO MUCH STUFF! Please be RUTHLESS in your decisions about what you cannot live without....and just bring that stuff. Our POD 8 x 16' (128 sq ft jam packed tight) cost about $2,500 at that time. It took years to shed some of the stuff I should never have brought along. SAD :ohdear:

For $8000 probably could get new furniture and have an estate sale to sell the old. Clean slate. Everything new

A lot of people use Pods. We bought furniture, bedroom, den, living room, dining room and 4 bar stools for about $7,000.

You should always get 2 Or 3 quotes. Then pick the best one

short answer is YES
 

but most will say sell stuff and buy new here

except for

dishes, silverywear , photos , memento, documents - jewelry. artwork etc. musical instruments sports equipment etc

DON'T BRING FURNITURE

UPack is way to go. Get a 1/2 semi and only pay for how much of the truck you use. They drop off , hire local people to load. They pick up, 5-7 days latter it arrives in villages. Hire someone to unload. They pick up.

Super easy and way cheaper. My cost from cleveland to villages was less then 5000 dollars and very convenient.

Moving Trailer | U-Pack

Moving cost
 

We just moved 2 16’ Pack Rat containers from Kansas City for 7k. From what I have been hearing if you can get it for that price that would be cheap, but don’t be surprised when the actual bill is much more.
Pack Rat was cheaper than pods.
We didn’t have enough time to purge what we should have and will probably be donating halve of what we brought down.
There just isn’t any storage and I am not going to pay to store it.
So we will find a cause that we like and donate it to them.

Sounds right. Our cost from Wisconsin was about that. Plus fuel costs are going up.

move
 

Get quotes from your high rated local movers

I know many advocate getting rid of everything and buying new, and that villagers who brought furniture with them regret it. With that in mind, we downsized our house by half. We got rid of so, so much!! But we still kept enough furniture to get our house started. Keep in mind that there is a wait for furniture. Plus, if you have good quality furniture you won’t be able to replace it with similar quality for what you would save in closing costs.

Finally, as others suggested, try getting a POD and doing the move yourself. Hire movers on both ends to pack/unpack. I am a fan of Village Mover. (Villagemover.con). They were awesome.

Good luck!

Fair Quote
 

That quote is reasonaable from Mayflower.

We moved from Maryland August 2020 and paid almost $7K and we packed ourselves. 10,000 pounds. Three bedroom full house. The movers damaged a lot of furniture. Get insurance and make them stay upon delivery for you to inspect. Our claims paid for the move and then some and we have furniture until we buy new. The company had good reviews but we got a bad crew. Movers were owned by Wheaton.

I would only use a very reputable mover like Mayflower, (we used Mayflower for our move within Florida recently). What a difference - they were nearly perfect.

But the answer you are looking for is yes that is a good quote from a good company.

WE BROUGHT FURNITURE...

Our BR set fits better here that it does up North. The expensive futon is perfect for one of the extra BRs. It's very comfortable as a couch and as an additional queen size bed.

Neither are the "heavy dark wood" that others say "don't fit in FL's decor". But neither are they the cheap composite wood so much furniture is made from these days. As is the repurposed and repainted dresser/night table we're using for the other BR. Solid Ash. And the large armoire that fits perfectly in the LR? Similar finish to our BR set. Great for extra storage and where TV section was will be my wife's "sewing station"...

Our BR set alone would cost more to replace than it cost for the entire move...

Now granted, we still have a home up north, so we were able to pick and choose what pieces we wanted to keep. The rest will be eventually sold...

here's what to do moving
 

just moved myself
Sell or donate as much as you can . Eight thousand is the going rate . If you want to keep some things and spend less get a pod Quote . Keep a few essentials . Rent a pod . The large unit hold 4 rooms enough for a bed appliances and the what you cant part with. They have a labor service that will pack and unload the pod. My cost from NC to Fla was under 4,000.

We moved in April from Chattanooga and paid 11k for 2 br, large study unit, large dark dining room set (regret this) couch, Loveseat, chair, 2 recliners, exercise equipment, and lots of tools.
We got many bids, from 7k to 11k. I had an independent driver explain that drivers bid on jobs without putting all of costs in and the end prices all come out about the same. Three of national companies came out within just a few dollars of each other and the local one offered used boxes.
It sounds like you have a good price, but I agree that you should dispose of furniture that you think you will be replacing here. The 2nd hand stores are full of really nice traditional furniture and you can't sell it for nearly as much as you can at home.

Verity is by far the best mover from north to south. Private company with no outside sales people. Estimates are dead on. They even refunded cost because they over estimated. No breakage and the truck won’t get lost. Stay away from companies that use outside sales people.

We were faced with the same very expensive situation, $11k quote to move us if we boxed everything and they loaded boxes and blanketed furniture. I opted for a uhaul truck and uhaul helpers to load and unload. Moved everything for under $2k.

We have had both military and employer moves. We paid 10k from TX to TV. We had a 4 BR house.

Ohiobuckeye
 

If you’re talking to me no wasn’t nervous at all because we moved ourselves from Ohio & we had to rent a U-Haul twice because it was thousands of dollars cheaper than hiring a moving service. But you have to have the will power to do it yourself. Spending 15 to $20,000. was my will power to do it ourselves. Then we moved to Texas & we move ourselves again. You have to decide if it’s worth it. TV is a great place to live as long as you do something to offset the $165.00 a month Amenities ever month & I did!

Think about it
 

Unless you are really attached to your furniture, you might want to consider selling much if it before heading south. Styles are quite different in Florida and dark “northern” furniture often feels dreary in the land of turquoise and yellows.