Whether you are moving into, or out of, or otherwise around the vibrant City of Austin, in Texas, you will inevitably find yourself facing the unique challenges of relocating in a capital city. In addition to concerns about location, commuting, rent, school and office location, and so forth, there is the price of moving apartments to consider.
Are you wondering how to find a low-cost solution without getting scammed in the process? We have some ideas for you. While you are here, you may also want to check out this helpful article about selecting the best neighborhood for yourself and your family.
Get on the trail of cheap companies ahead of time.
Just stop for a moment and consider your competition. What you are looking for here is like the last white rhino. Just like in any other industry, in moving too, cheap contractors are in high demand. In other words, these neatly affordable full-service moving companies will be receiving calls way before the peak of the moving season even appears on the horizon.
You need to remember that the employees there are humans as well, and they will most likely want to avoid becoming overwhelmed, so you are basically in a “first come, first served” type of situation. Schedule your own spot before they get all booked. Ideally, you should select a company and sign with them a few months before the actual moving rolls around. This may even score you a discount for booking early!
You can find some information on preferred times for relocating in this blog post: https://household-tips.thefuntimesguide.com/best_moving/
Make sure the recommendations you receive are reliable.
Perhaps the greatest challenge in selecting a moving company while staying frugal about it is the juggling act between affordability and reliability. Everyone will paint themselves as both the cheapest and the best, and figuring out whom to believe is instant migraine fuel.
Ask around among your closest friends, trusted co-workers, or a few neighbors you are on sufficiently good standing with. The best option, if at all possible, is to discuss your needs with a person who had recently moved house themselves. Inquire about their experience, listen to what impressions they got along the way and what they may have noticed in the workers or representatives.
The two chief points you need to learn about are the level of service quality and affordability. Make sure to note down the name of the company and their contact information, if your friend still happens to have it. Luckily, even if they do not remember a phone number, most businesses nowadays have their own websites, and these tend to be named after the business itself, like applemoving.com or khanacademy.org. From there, finding appropriate contact channels is usually quite easy.
Rely on customer reviews rather than company websites.
This is the natural immediate sequel of asking your acquaintances for recommendations. If real live people have no way of helping you, cooperative netizens in the same boat are the next best thing.
Reviews for moving companies are typically formatted into “overall performance” grading, accompanied by a short piece of written feedback which lists out the positive and negative points of the experience, and maybe somewhat elaborates on them.
Hiring a moving company with a solid reputation decreases the chances of getting tangled up in some kind of a scamming scheme along the way. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, these reviews are written and posted by genuine individuals who are more or less completely independent from the actual business. This means that they are far more likely to be completely honest, if not completely objective, as opposed to briefs and quotes on the company websites, which are biased towards constantly casting them in a positive light.
Customer reviews are critically important to any business entity in modern day, and the customers themselves are well aware of this power. For that very reason, people do not shy away from sharing both their good and bad experiences with service providers on various platforms such as Yelp, and this, in turn, makes for an invaluable source of references right at your fingertips.
Make sure any price estimates are given in-house.
This step is your best friend when it comes both to budget planning and avoiding cheating con companies. Remember, when a legitimate moving company gives you a quote, they do so after having visited your current apartment or house and doing a thorough review of the number, dimensions, and total weight of your items.
Be smart and acquire several quotes to compare for best options. Three is typically considered to be the bare minimum, but feel free to get as many as you like. There is no way to go overboard in this, so feel free to check and recheck all of your numbers before making a decision. After all, whatever company you ultimately select will be chosen because it was the best fit for your limited budget.
Never, ever, take for granted an estimate you received via email, chat, or on the phone. These are not nearly as accurate as they need to be, and moreover, wildly guessing estimated prices over the phone or web is by now a widely infamous scammer trope.
Request that the moving company representatives come to your current home for a professional visit and that they observe and estimate your packing and moving needs and their price.
Also remember to account for complications like tight hallways or corners, long stairways, non-existent, non-functioning, or unavailable elevators, extra packing for fragile items, special transportation care requirements and similar technical difficulties. Take into consideration the potential additional labor required when unloading your property, and whether your moving company’s transporter vehicle will have enough room to maneuver, easily approach and comfortably leave your new residence.
All of these things factor into the service estimate you will be given, and several may be added onto it later, as they occur. This makes a huge difference in budget planning.
Related Posts
