How much did y’all spend on movers?
Posted by Mean-Marketing2386@reddit | askdfw | View on Reddit | 58 comments
I’m moving from California to Texas and don’t have the muscle to move my small studio amount of stuff into a U-Haul or even unload when I’m there. Plus I need to drive my car there. So I need movers and muscle for loading and unloading. I’ll pack everything and I keep getting quotes from $4000-8000 and then $6000-$8000. Does that feel steep or, no? How much did ya’ll pay for an almost 1400 mile move?
TeacherExit@reddit
Sell donate. Buy new stuff. Seriously. Why spend 8k moving old stuff.
AdWhole6686@reddit
Totally get the logic, but sometimes you’ve got pieces that are either sentimental or just too pricey to replace. For those cases, finding a good moving crew like 3 Men Movers can make the whole thing less painful.
Texas_Lobo@reddit
best move I ever made after i graduated, I literally had an estate sale in my apartment, sold everything that wouldn't fit into my carry on. Felt so fresh and free...
Inevitable_Panda_999@reddit
Rent Uhaul, hire movers to load in Cali (around $300+tip), ship your car, drive Uhaul, get to Dallas and hire movers to unload (around $200+tip).
Sadetha@reddit
Came here to say this
acaudill317@reddit
This is the way. You don't even need to ship the car, rent one of the U-Haul car haulers and tow it behind the truck.
SadlyConfusicated@reddit
Or winch the car up on a flatbed trailer.
soggyballsack@reddit
Why you cheating out the Dallas movers?
onfroiGamer@reddit
This is smart, plus gas + food + hotel this would probably end up being around $1000
roccosito@reddit
You’ll need or want to hire movers directly. Like offer up to people directly.
Any agencies or moving services will easily be $1000. Not including tip.
Inevitable_Panda_999@reddit
U-Haul offers mover services, which are around $200 for 2 hours. They have a lot of full time movers who are really fast.
Karate_Andii@reddit
Those are a bit high, for 1400 miles I'd say anything between $3000-$5000 honestly. Car shipping can be over $1000 on top. So just be ready for that.
If money's not an issue I can only talk about inNout Movers, used them in Texas but I know they also do interstate moving. Not too expensive for loading/unloading and bringing in the furniture.
allmyargumentsRvaild@reddit
At those prices it would be cheaper to ship it as freight. I got a quote online for shipping two pallets of my belongings from LA to Dallas and it was around a grand. You could also look into one of those storage cubes and hire movers to load and unload it.
Mean-Marketing2386@reddit (OP)
I don’t think about that! What freight did you use and how long did it take for it to get to you?
DueMinimum294@reddit
Around 5k for about 40 boxes no furniture at all from Ct to Dfw and then an extra 1750 to ship my car 😒
zacklong96@reddit
i paid like 1500 for some fools to load up my storage unit and drive it around the corner, it’s so expensive
names_are_hard_twss@reddit
I've been pricing movers from Texas to Nevada (12xx miles) and they were ranging from about $1200 to $1400 for the mileage plus $500ish for packing/unloading.
I think your starting point is generally more expensive than most locations. Prolly 1st or 2nd expensive to New York.
NervousWriter9@reddit
Wow that's such a great price. Which movers are you getting these prices from?
Money-Ranger-6520@reddit
Jeez, crazy quotes. Call at least 4-5 companies before booking anything and compare reviews as well. Or maybe use a moving cost calculator site like moveBuddha to see estimates.
If you're looking to cut costs, you might consider renting a U-Haul and hiring local movers (Fb marketplace, local apps) just for loading/unloading, that combo is usually way cheaper.
Strawberry562@reddit
I moved from SoCal to Oklahoma a few years ago and was quoted around the same. I got rid of all my furniture and decided to just fill my car with stuff and ship the car, shipped some boxes, and flew with a few suitcases. I don't remember exact amount but was probably around $1200/1500.
Brilliant-Key4613@reddit
Moved from san diego to dallas, i did pods and hired someone to pack my pod up from my apartment in SD and then hired someone in dallas to unload my pod at the facility and then deliver and move the items into my apartment.
pod was i think around $4k but it was stressful because it was behind schedule and pricing was not fully promised as advertised. i had an airtag in the pod to track on my own. you could hire a task rabbit to do the unloading, i’ve done that a few times here in dallas instead of hiring movers because sometimes its cheaper and some are by the hour instead of 3 hour minimum.
reconfit@reddit
Be aware that long haul movers routinely raise their final prices after loading up and will hold your things hostage until you agree to the new terms.
Rent a UHaul and a car dolly and drive yourself.
jcastillo100@reddit
I moved from California to Louisiana. I rented a budget truck from Costco Budget rental (cheaper by 2500 for same truck, but then I drove with my sister from California to Dallas and then she flew home and I kept on for the last little bit. I spent $800+$120 tip for 2 movers to load up my truck. And $3400 on 26’ truck rental, gas, hotel, and food. If you’re in a studio, you can do it for much less. I was nervous, but just took my time, I installed a temporary backup camera on the truck from Amazon because it was 26ft and I backed my truck up against a bush or wall whenever I could while I traveled.
I also considered a Ubox but that can be a problem if you don’t have somewhere to park it as they leave it for a couple of days before they pick it back up. Good luck!
blackicerhythms@reddit
In mid 2022 during the height of the California diaspora to the DFW, we paid $18,000.00 to move most of our 1400 Sqft condo from Santa Monica to Dallas. We even left some major pieces of furniture behind.
I felt violated.
Death_By_Geckos@reddit
Total nightmare. Quoted 8k. Ended up being 14k and our stuff didn’t even show up until a month after we were here. Family of four. San Diego to DFW.
easrrow8766@reddit
paid around 800-1000 to drive a u-haul from dallas to FL
mwa12345@reddit
And you hired someone else to load it at both locations?
easrrow8766@reddit
nope 💔
mwa12345@reddit
That seems like a very good price.
jettaset@reddit
Careful. I hear movers can tack on a bunch of charges at destination then hold your stuff hostage. If you have $6 to $8 grand, I'd just send pod for $1,500 and buy new furniture.
liloto3@reddit
My in-laws paid 12k from TX to SC.
Aggressive-Horror-16@reddit
my movers quoted \~$4.5k from nyc to dfw to give you a data point. also had movers quote $10k+, mostly storage companies masquerading as moving companies who were outsourcing the shipping and marking up their services.
Puzzleheaded_View225@reddit
Thanks, this is helpful. Can you give a ballpark on how much stuff you had (1 bedroom apt vs 4 bedroom house)?
Aggressive-Horror-16@reddit
2br apartment, quote is for the move next week :)
Puzzleheaded_View225@reddit
Thank you!
Design-Hiro@reddit
If the quote is over 4k, you're better off just mailing yourself the things you care about first. I did that moving from NYC to DFW and my whole moving cost was 925.21.
Only thing I didn't move was my bed, bedframe, desk, or sofa.
mwa12345@reddit
Wow Gow many boxes was that?
Design-Hiro@reddit
15 boxes, most of them medium sized and low in weight. The most expensive thing was mailing window AC unit which, in hindsight, I should have bought another one there bc I didn't know yet if I would have central AC.
mrkrabz1991@reddit
It cost me 2k to move my 1-bedroom apartment about 6 blocks in DFW, so 6k to move across the country I don't see being unrealistic.
If it's just a studio apartment, honestly, I'd sell just about everything and get a small UHaul for my personal stuff and then just go furniture shopping in DFW when I arrive. You'd save a ton, and get new furniture in the process.
BallinLikeimKD@reddit
When was this? That sounds insanely high for that short of a move. I helped a friend move from North Fort Worth to Uptown Dallas. He had a 2 bedroom apartment and he only paid $600 + tip.
mrkrabz1991@reddit
In May. I hired a movers, wasn't a friend. Will never use that mover again (for different reasons) but yeah I thought it was excessive.
BallinLikeimKD@reddit
Yeah, my friend hired 2 movers as well. I only helped him fit a couple important things he didn’t want broken in my car. Definitely sounds excessive.
kittybee_10@reddit
We just moved from VA to Dallas and were quoted $14K for a 5 bedroom by the typical full service movers. Instead, we bought a 16ft trailer that we will sell immediately, moved our essentials, and used Pack Rat for the rest- also hired movers in both locations to load and unload. All in all, spent $7K.
LandscapeAdmirable84@reddit
Moving in Dallas is ~$200/hour for a 3 man crew. I can definitely see how it could add up to an $8000 quote if your stuff is going long distances.
mentalscribbles@reddit
Have you looked into pods.com?
bananabob23@reddit
If I was quoted 8k I would just sell all of my shit and buy it again once I reached my destination
Mean-Marketing2386@reddit (OP)
Seriously!! I feel like all of my shit added up isn’t even worth 8k
bobby7198@reddit
Ding ding ding.
Acceptable_Estate330@reddit
I noticed one neighbor moving these days on a similar situation. He rented a uhaul that comes with a car pulling attachment in the back (forgive my ignorance, English is not my native language and I have no idea what’s the name of that thing, I just know he loaded the front wheels of his car to that, and the back wheels were on the ground like a trailer). He hired one guy to help him with the heavy stuff for a couple hours, using an ad on uhaul website upon booking his truck, and will hire another one on his destination.
pandudon@reddit
If it is just a studio apartment worth of stuff, I know a guy who will do it for $1k, plus vehicle rental
PomeloPepper@reddit
One of the other problems that movers don't tell you about is that the trip waits until they have a full truck. So they may be waiting in that 3rd or 4th person's stuff to get loaded before they drive halfway across the country.
dualipasmoonchild@reddit
Honestly, those quotes sound very accurate to me so really decide if you wanna just sell all your shit.
mike_lowrey214@reddit
Check into the moving pods, by far the cheapest way to move across the country.
Live_the_chaos@reddit
Movers here in Dallas moved my whole house, and unloaded it in 5 hours. It was $800 including the $100 tip I left.
BatteredSealPup@reddit
The companies in your origin city sound expensive. It cost me just under $2k for movers to pickup my stuff in Seattle and deliver it in Dallas.
ActionJackson75@reddit
That sounds about right to me to be honest, at least on the low end of the estimates.
You can rent a U-Haul and include a car trailer, in case you didn't know that was an option. You could pay movers to just load/unload the truck and then drive it yourself, pulling your car behind. You could do that for probably 2k including rental, gas, hotels and a few hours of labor on either end of the trip, which honestly makes 4k sound like kinda a good deal.
SouthernWindyTimes@reddit
I’d do it for $3.4K. Even drive the car with it. All it takes it getting a U-Haul, and then a car dolly, and loading it all up. Rent the U-Haul and car dolly ($1500 prob) then pay movers to load it and unload it but do the driving and you’ll save yourself 2K.
throwaway87234510921@reddit
I loaded up my car from the floor to the roof and left everything behind in Cali. I slept on an air matters for a month or two, no furniture at all. I bought new stuff in DFW as time went on. Doing good 2 years later..