How Do Moving Companies Survive
Basically, moving companies work like this:
- You google moving companies and the big names show up. Allied, Mayflower, Graebel, etc.
- They schedule some sort home visit to roughly figure out how many boxes it takes to move you and look for odd ball stuff
- Quote you and then feel free to shop.
So our experience? Well, we went off a friend's recommendation and called Graebel. They used them to move from here to there. Our guy showed up about a week after I called them to spend about 20 minutes on an iPad telling me I have X boxes. At the end, he sent us a quote to the wrong email address, followed up on where the quote is... yeah.. some other guy named Tommer. Anyways.. the quote was for roughly 10,000lbs of our crap at around or not to exceed $11,000. Yes.... $11,000. Now... its not that bad when you find out that the government will basically let us write it off. (posts to come on this topic). But you still need to pay for it.. (ching, ching... Chase Sapphire points). So what does $11k get you?
- King Bed, Queen Bed and (2) singles
- Couch, Love seat, chair, chair
- Misc dressers
- Framed Pictures (we have a few odd ball and large)
- I was going to pack all the TVs and then found out its $200+ per tv. Only taking the new one. :)
- Typical garage stuff.. lawn mower, my trusty and loyal companion 4 cycle blower, tools, etc.
- Complete packing of the kitchen and "other"
- Unpacking at the new house or maybe unloading. The fine print goes on.
So how does the process work? Well I found out the hardway. Trying to time this entire move has been a nightmare with all sorts of shifting dates, jobs, driving across country, etc. We finally boiled down to a date. Sept 7th, lets drive that morning. Put on the Project Manager cap.. we roll back the schedule and setup the movers on the 6th, etc.
I call to the movers and say, lets do this. Oh and when will our stuff get there if you load on the 6th. Umm.. not until 14th, 15th or 16th. Wait.. what did you say? Your Truck driver takes more time to drive across country than me, my 2 kids dog and wife? Turns out.. they only drive about 500 miles a day (bullshit). And also stop to pick up or drop off stuff along the way. And if you want your own trunk, pony up around $25k.
Tighten the PM cap and recalc the schedule. The movers are now coming on 4th to pack and 5th to load the truck. That means we stay at a hotel on the 5th and drive out the 6th... we estimated getting there around 11th. Pushing the moving company to commit to an earlier drop off date got us to 12/13/14. Still.. better, but want a two day window...
And the $11k questions? when do we know they will show up.. well..apparently they will call 24 hours in advance before drop off. Hopefully we are not still in Nashville buying cowboy boots and hats for Cash to complete his country western name.
Murphy's Law
Those that know Murphy's Law pretty much understand when he shows up. For example... Open house on Sunday here at the house. Super fun birthday party Saturday afternoon/evening. Around 1am we hear poor Cash stumble out of bed and blow chunks all over the living room floor. Blue cupcake frosting to be exact. Doc McStuffins would classify this as a case of the "Blue Sugarbug-itous".
Misc things will always happen. Smile, do what you can and move on. Everything happens for a reason. Like when my wife decided that coffee is now cool. At Target this weekend on those annoying "Here are your coupons" for stuff like diapers and ass cream.. well this one was $30 off the Keurig coffee maker! Guess I will be heading to the Tar-jay later :)
Let The Doors Open up!
Well, not The Doors "Light My Fire", but doors to the home! Since this is our first home and the first time and probably not the last time we sell a home, we are going through the crazy process of putting it on the market. Once you pull the trigger, the real estate train is moving fast!
First comes the photographer to take pictures our house. Basically they show up with a wide angle lens and snap away. We were out of town when they came, but the pictures came out great! One tip is to include a few things in your pictures for the website, then at open house, take them down. For example, we have a pool with a fabric fence that is removable. For the pictures, we had it up, but slightly open. For showings and open house, we took it down to open up the space. The buyers could see what it looked like both ways.
After all the pictures get put up, the list agent comes over to sign a bunch of paperwork and boom.. next thing you know, there is a broker tour coming around to snoop through your underwear drawer...well not really but. And what I thought was crazy was I thought the broker tour was only brokers.. but they brought potential buyers as well!
Immediately after the broker tour happens and your home is listed on MLS, this is when it gets yummy. Yummy as in you might as well plan for going out alot!
- Agents will start calling you directly for a showing. Typically a 2 hour notice or sometimes 15 minutes.
- The house needs to be ready to been seen at any time. With kids, dogs, yard, etc it gets complicated. What do I do with the dog, etc
- Every morning we started to get into a routine.... make the beds, vacuum, wipe everything, fluff the pillows, etc. I usually head outside and blow the front and back.
- Turn on the lights, music inside and outside, the patio fan and light and tv. Anything to make it feel "home" for someone else.
- Cali the family dog has had quite a few trips with me to the dog park, office, San Francisco, pick up the kids from school, out to dinner. She normally is king of the castle outside chasing squirrels around the yard!
De-Clutter the Clutter
In preperation to get our current home on the market, our agent recommended we "de-clutter" Chalet Walden. Who knew it would take weeks to get the place cleaned up. In a Walnut Creek nut shell, here is some recommended tips.
- Start with your garage because this is where you will need to store everything out of sight. I went to the far corner and of the garage and cleaned forward. Once I had half the garage organized, I could then start boxing stuff I would know we would not need at all until we get to our new house.
- Put all those boxes and crap in the back corner and stack
- Start your trash pile. Lucky for us, we have a large spot on the side of the house where the Nautique was parked to throw things for the dump.
- Im on the fence about this, but I did start a rummage sale pile. Stuff Id probably throw, someone may buy. I put this all in the garage. We will see if it works out.
- Pick a room in the house and start there. I started in my office and worked my way out to other rooms.
- We had to paint (2) rooms before pictures were taken. This helped clean them out of the clutter stuff pretty quickly.
- We cleaned the toys up last. This way if the kids wanted to play with Legos or whatever it was first in the garage and could be carried out.
- Leave a spot in the garage for stuff to move back and forth between showings and open houses. With kids, its a must.
- Dont pack everything up! Leave out the nick-nack crap to decorate the shelves, tables, etc. You still want it to look like you live there!
- Hire someone to take over house cleaning and yard work on a weekly basis and do this weeks before you put your home on the market. Takes a few less things off your list to worry about.
Probably many others, but this had helped us "get ready" whatever that means. It seems like every day its a "get ready" for the next whirlwind!
Back Where it All Begins
Every summer for past many years, we travel back to the motherland (aka Wisconsin) to see family and friends. Our family fly would back and gather around the sandy beach of Long Lake to have fun in the sun with the cousins while the grown ups catch up on miscellaneous cocktails and beers. All would come to an end when one of the family's packs up their cruiser to head back to their respective homes. The end would come and our kids would go into shell shock when the cars would leave one by one. The feeling of sadness in the cousins as they gave their goodbyes eventually subsided as we headed back to the West Coast. But the feeling of family I think does not leave.
Before the kids were born, it was never a big deal when we didnt see family for 6 or 12 months. (insert all jokes now) Now we have kids and our extended family has kids, we all want to see them more. Our family seems to travel all the time, every time of the year. If its not Christmas, its some other time of year and usually going coast to coast or the Midwest. The airlines love us, Park SFO loves us and the dog sitters might have to report income to the federal government for tax purposes we have been so many times.
The West coast is a great coast. I have been here since 1999 and Heather since 2002. We have met so many great friends, traveled and really enjoyed every bit of it. But in reality, life is screaming on by us before our eyes. Seeing your family once maybe twice a year really should not be "the normal". I mean lets be real... 6 hours of flying and 2 time zones just to get to Lambeau field is absolutely ridiculous!
So how the heck did we get where we are today?! The decision was not an easy one. I think Heather and I have been talking for quite a long time about moving somewhere. Maybe Chicago, maybe Minneapolis, etc. We would look at homes online, imagine what it would be like. I remember when the Home Alone house came for sale. How cool would that be to have family christmas there?! Would we leave Cash there all by himself and fly to Paris.... probably not Paris but...
We looked around at weather, location to other family.. travel to places, still had a "city" and good schools and of course.. a lake. A real live lake.. well sort of lake.. but was not the dirty Delta. (where you may see a dead cow and maybe one "beach" with broken glass and probably a dead hooker.) We ran a few scouting missions and decided upon Charlotte, NC. Everything from the lakes, schools, weather, and we could actually DRIVE to see family or they could see us in a few hours. We finally found a home in Fort Mill, SC where the schools are fantastic and the property taxes where half of North Carolina. Go figure right?!
Well, let the journey begin.
