by Pat Dowdy

Created on: October 12, 2008

Hiring someone to move your home or office should not be a difficult process. Your success depends on your own understanding of what is necessary to relocate your possessions with as few stresses as possible.

Start your search for a mover by asking friends, relatives and business associates for recommendations. Add to those references, movers you may have surveyed on-line, or have found in the business pages of various telephone directories in your city...or professional movers who have posted classified ads in your area's newspapers.

With each reference, check to be certain that a mover is licensed. Then run a check on the license through your state's Consumer Protection Board. If you don't know how to do this search on-line, a telephone call to you local public library's business division will get you much needed information on the work history of the companies you seek to investigate.

Your local Better Business Bureau is another great clearinghouse for you at this point. The BBB will let you know if a mover has unresolved complaints against its license. Between the two resources, you will likely eliminate a few contenders from your list.

When you can narrow your selection to eight to ten movers, that is when you should conduct telephone interviews to select at least three companies whom you can invite to your home to give you a no-cost-estimate.

Have the company's representative itemize not only the price of labor but the number of employers necessary to undertake the move. You'll want an estimate on the boxes you will need to pack items before the moving crew arrives. It is also important to tie down the mileage charge of your move at this stage.

Inquire of the representative as to the time expected to load, to haul, and to unpack your move. Be certain that the truck to be used will be large enough to move everything in one trip. Price the disconnection and re-hookup of gas ranges or washers and dryers, if applicable. Point out sensitive equipment (computers, music and entertainment systems), antiques, and fine arts and discuss how such components will be handled.

Then get a total cost for all of the entire move in the form of an itemized written estimate on a template contract to be executed later should you choose that mover.

Don't skip on these important items. Licenced movers may appear to cost more until you experience the hard way of having hired one of the cheaper so-called "movers". The courts are full of cases of such atrocities. That is the reason that many states have decided that the only way consumers can expect professional work from such companies is that the business be licensed.

Your move need not to be another cause to stress as you leave one home or office in anticipation of starting another. Cross these T's and dot these I's at your planning stage and your relocation course should be one of smooth sailing.

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