All depends on where you are. And there's a good chance that any company will ask for more money when they get your things before they will unload.

are any items 'costly' to move/load, i.e. piano, large freezer, etc.? Frankly, since you are doing the packing you might consider renting a U-Haul and hiring someone to load/unload your stuff. Probably a lot less expensive.

Define "normal".

Probably like most things in life... you get what you pay for.

there are no appliances or pianos to move. its furniture and boxes. some woodworking tools. i am considering the uhaul.

normal would be folks posting how much it cost them for movers for comparison.

Are you moving from one state to another? Interstate moves typically cost more than same distance intrastate moves. There are regulations that require different insurance for these moves.

i am moving within this state. i got the 3rd estimate this morning and it was in between the other two. i think this legitamizes the estimates. they all are quoting for a 26' truck and 3 workers over 2 days. the last estimate was from someone who did an inventory in person. the other 2 were inventories submitted by me.

anyway, thanks for the comments and suggestions. looks like uhaul for me.

I looked up our move estimate summary. It was minimum charge of 891 $ for 3 hours(I think?), not to exceed 2,375$ ..every 15 min added around 75 . I think we payed around 2K in the end. 1800 maybe? I can't find the final receipt right now. The move was really close-10 min max. 3 bedroom house. I did need help with packing but that was charged separately. Different team as well. Just to add-these were one of the best guys I've seen, and I moved a lot.

The company was called "Meathead Movers"..look them up if you're interested. They employ students who want to make extra money. I was a bit wary but the reviews were raving..now I can tell you these were really nice, hard working, respectable guys, and they tried to do everything so I'll be pleased in the end..furniture placement, everything, Move is always a stress and they really tried to do everything right.

(I compared the quotes of course to couple other companies, didn't see much difference. They come for an estimate, count your things, amount of people they deem needed for the move, hours it will probably take..give you an estimate based on that)

With the long distance move, it makes sense that your quote is higher. You might need less people and time loading and unloading, yet much more time driving.

When we moved from LA to KY 33 years ago, it cost around $8000. We filled the biggest van available. We did have them pack all the breakables.

I would require a not to exceed $XX.XX amount written into the contract.

I would require a not to exceed $XX.XX amount written into the contract.

Good luck with that when everything you own is on their truck, under their control, and they ask for more money.

We've often been moved by companies, who give us a moving allowance of up to $15K. Moving is a PIA. We helped some friends move on the cheap recently and almost died with the moving of appliances and such. We are only in our 40s, and way too old for that. IMO, anything under $5K is probably worth the money for that labor. Our last move included packing up our house. That was the bomb!

I would require a not to exceed $XX.XX amount written into the contract.

Good luck with that when everything you own is on their truck, under their control, and they ask for more money.

We just moved, we had a written dollar amount contract, it could only be changed if we made changes on moving day. The actual movers on moving day told us one heavy coffee needed to be crated, we at first considered it, but I reread my contract, price would change with any changes we agreed to, we said no, same moving company had moved us twice before with same table, it never broke and we never crated it. They also worked slowly and said our storage unit might close before they can deliver, we checked, no they were open until 8pm. They did move slowly and did need to deliver the second truck to the storage unit the next day. They said they needed our signature just so the moving company would pay them for the next day delivery, I hit the ceiling when my credit card showed a $464 additional charge. Fortunately we'd used the moving company before and praised the movers so we promptly disputed the charge on our credit card and called the moving company to explain the problem we had with this last move. They instantly said no problem they will advise the movers they will not receive extra monies and remove the charge.

All this to say, you can have a secure written contract with a moving company. We dealt with a local office of a large company, they hire out subs for local moves, I bet they won't use those subs again.

We used 2 Men and a Truck and have nothing but great things to say about them. We did our own packing and they moved it. This was for my Mom going from a home to an apartment. About a 6 mile move only, so not very expensive.

i reserved a uhaul for tomorrow with the pickup in a town 20 minutes from here. uhaul said i would have to pick up the truck in another town 45 minutes from here. they were willing to give additional mileage allowance to make up the additional distance. i live in a rural area. anyway with heavy rain forecast for the next couple of days i cancelled the reservation. the 20' uhaul is about $225 for 2 days and enough mileage allowance to cover the move.

the highest estimate i got was from 2 men and a truck.

There are a few other ways to do this.

Uhaul has a link on their website to movinghelpers. You can hire independent moving labor to pack, load, drive, unload, unpack and maid/cleaning services. I've used it a couple of times through the years. What I like about it is the ability to see reviews. You can see histories of the independent contractors who are helping you. You set the appointment, estimate how long you need them, charge it on a credit card. Once the service has been completed, you give the passcode you have been provided to the service person. They get paid. I've had nothing but good experiences doing this. You do need to remember that you need to provide any packing supplies or moving blankets.

Uhaul also has moving pods that you self load or have the movinghelpers load for you. ABF Freight runs a similar service. ABF does a lot of rural work. If you want to use their pod system, it's called U-Pack. I used it a few months ago and it was great. If you have a large load, they will rent you a trailer or some percentage of the trailer. You can load it yourself or hire their independent contractor loading services to do it for you.

With my last load, which was a small load, I used Uhaul movinghelpers and ABF U-Pack Pods. It worked out great.

$6,600 from Camden, Maine to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Roughly 860 miles.

Was this a hundred pounds... or 10,000 pounds... or?

About $7,000, 1200 miles, not a full houseful of furniture because we are buying a good deal out there, but but the pieces we are taking are fairly substantial, and lots and lots of boxes, bikes, etc.

These prices are meaningless without weight info.

Whatever you do be sure to hang on to the receipts. Your moving expenses could be deductible on your taxes.

I second the recommendation for ABF and their U-Pack service. They drop a trailer in front of your house. You load it (or pay some local strong-people to do so, and can even stretch it over a few days or a week), then you lock it up with YOUR lock, and call them to schedule the pickup. Then they drop it in front of your new place, and you unload (or find some strong unloaders). It cost a whole lot less than your quote! It was better for us, with no broken items, no stolen items, etc.

My Fast Movers 8 year old post...................