Buying A Home
MrsS728
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Is it worth hiring movers?
My husband and I just bought our first home on Saturday and we are contemplating hiring movers. We've gotten estimates of anywhere from $500 for 3 1/2 hours to $900 for 7 hours. Is it worth it? What have your experiences been? TIA
Re: Is it worth hiring movers?
DH and I have moved twice and will be moving again at the end of the month. We have always asked friends/family to help in the past, but this time we're paying for movers. Here's why:
1. Movers have more respect for your stuff. I understand that your friends will be gentle with fragile stuff, but we've had TONS of stuff break using our friends to help us move. And they are just like "oh well, it was like a $5 bowl or whatever" and they'd give us $5. BUT for movers, if they break something it's their reputation.
2. Better moving trucks/vans. We tried piling all of our stuff into 5 different trucks and cars and a lot of our stuff was put in our new place in the wrong room. Like kitchen sutff wound up in the bedroom, bathroom stuff in the living room, etc. It may not be a big deal to some, but when we spent hours of labeling each box specifically, it's annoying that our friends didn't pay attention to where stuff should go.
3. You won't be made fun of for how many pairs of shoes you own or how crappy your couch is or how you didn't pack the boxes correctly.
4. If one of your friends get hurt because they tried to lift something too heavy or fall down the stairs or something, they will blame you. Movers are trained and qualified.
Those are the reasons we're paying (kind of a high price) for movers in a few weeks. We aren't even telling a lot of our friends or family that we're moving yet, because we want them out of our hair.
We have moved several times using movers and it's been $300-400 each time. They are super fast (can move an entire apartment worth of stuff and unload it at the new place in like 3 hrs). Moving with friends/family would have taken an entire day or more.
Movers bring tons of blankets and carefully wrap items. I don't even own enough blankets to do this ourselves. I have never had anything broken using movers, but if I did I wouldn't feel awkward pushing for reimbursement. If a friend is doing you a favor by helping you move it seems pretty cruddy to charge them for something they break by accident. Movers set up anything they take apart (like the bed) and I don't have to worry about someone getting hurt.
Most importantly, we never feel pressured into helping other people move since we never required the assistance of others to help us!
I think this would really depend on how much stuff you have to move. For my H & I, when we moved into our house, we only had contents from a studio apartment (which was still a lot of stuff, btw, but not like contents of an entire house). Our last move, we actually scored a free moving truck. There's a real estate office in Queens that lets people use their moving truck for free - the truck has their logo plastered over it, so you are essentially giving free advertising by driving the truck around
I think if we ever do move again in the future, we will definitely hire movers as we've aquired a lot more stuff since we now have a whole house that is furnished vs just a studio apartment.
I will hopefully be moving into my first home in less than 2 months and I fully intend to hire movers. We will be moving from an apartment within the same city, so our plan is to pack up all the small stuff and take care of that ourselves, but we are hiring movers to take care of all of our big furniture...it's totally worth not breaking our backs. I think it breaks down to about $100 an hour and we anticipate only needing them for 2-3 hours. Totally worth it.
All of PPs comments would also apply (liability, pace etc.)
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I'll go with the group and say movers are the way to go!
While they aren't cheap (we paid ~$600 in February for 5 hrs, but the job was done in 3.5) --- they are worth it!
I couldn't believe how fast they moved everything out of our 2 story house. They made a stop at a storage unit to unpack and they rearranged the contents to make sure everything fit! Then they went to our {temporary} apartment to deliver the rest of our stuff.
Not 1 thing was damaged.
We already said we're calling them again when we finally go to settlement on a new house.
Most importantly, like a pp mentioned, we didn't have to ask (= beg) our already busy friends with helping us and then having to repay the favor at a later time.
When we moved into this apartment complex we hired "moving assistants" and paid $300 for 3 hours for 2 helpers. (My MIL actually paid for this service) Basically they just helped us load and unload the truck we rented. We had to pack everything ourselves. None of our friends or family were available for our move in date and one of us had to sit with the boys.
As for hiring movers when we move from here and into whatever house we settle on...we haven't discussed it yet. I'd rather hire people to do everything from packing, cleaning and the lot!
Edit- Correction I just found out my MIL has already offered to pay for actual movers this time so we don't have truck rental on top of it!
DH and I have had several interstate moves in the last few years and have done the friends/family move and hired movers. I agree with previous posters that it is nice to have someone come in and professionally pack your belongings carefully wrapped with all the moving blankets, tape, cardboard, etc. to keep your stuff clean and safe.
I guess it depends what your alternative option is. Do you have friends and family ready and willing to help, or would it be a major inconvenience for them? I am tired of asking people to help, and I feel bad when they do b/c I'm pretty much worthless moving furniture. But DH and I could never do it by ourselves.
If the money is not a problem for you, then hiring movers is really nice.
My wife is pregnant and we don't want to spend a lot on movers, I think that she have reason, I recommend you not spend a lot
I've never worked with movers so I couldn't say if it'd be worth hiring them, but I know it's possible without them. I've moved a dozen times in my lifetime and it usually takes us longer than 3.5-7 hours including travel time, but it costs WAY less. It is tiring, but honestly packing is the hardest part and is generally the source of greatest frustration. If you are packed and organized, actually transporting the boxes and furniture from point A to point B is not difficult. With a few respectful, trustworthy friends and their Jeeps/trucks/vans, you could get it done in a timely manner and save quite a bit of money.
I'd definitely provide them with lunch/dinner and drinks. :-)
Best of luck with your move and congratulations on your first home!