Create one column for each provider and one row for every decision below. When a document does not answer a row, mark it unknown and request a written answer rather than filling the gap with an assumption.
Normalize the inventory
Two totals cannot be compared if one provider priced fewer items or assumed a different shipment size. Start with the physical move before reading the price.
- Match the room count and itemized furniture
- Compare box counts, owner-packed boxes, and mover-packed boxes
- Check appliances, outdoor items, exercise equipment, safes, art, and specialty pieces
- Confirm what will be disassembled and reassembled
- Ask each provider to correct omissions in writing
Use one inventory version number and send the same revision to every provider.
Put services on the same row
One quote may bundle services while another lists them separately. Rewrite each document into common rows so that blank does not silently mean included.
- Transportation or vehicle charge
- Loading and unloading labor
- Packing, unpacking, crating, and materials
- Storage, warehouse handling, container days, and redelivery
- Appliance, furniture, debris, or third-party services
Mark every blank as included, excluded, optional, unknown, or not applicable.
Expose the access assumptions
Stairs, elevators, parking distance, narrow roads, and building hours can change labor or trigger additional services. The estimate should reflect the route at both addresses.
- Flights of stairs and elevator availability
- Distance from vehicle to each entrance
- Parking permits, loading zones, docks, and time limits
- Shuttle or smaller-vehicle possibility
- Building protection, certificates, deposits, and move fees
Photographs and measurements are more useful than writing only “apartment” or “difficult access.”
Identify how the price can change
Circle the estimate type and every allowance, hourly assumption, minimum, variable rate, or quantity that will be reconciled later. A precise-looking total can still depend on open inputs.
- Binding, non-binding, not-to-exceed, hourly, flat-rate, or container pricing
- Estimated weight, actual weight, volume, hours, mileage, fuel, or rental days
- Minimum labor hours and travel-time rules
- Overtime, waiting time, date-change, cancellation, and rescheduling terms
- Taxes, tolls, deposits, refunds, and payment processing
For interstate household-goods moves, use FMCSA's current definitions rather than a salesperson's shorthand.
Compare responsibility for loss and damage
A line labeled protection, valuation, waiver, coverage, or insurance may represent a materially different obligation. Compare the written choice and claim process, not only its price.
- Default liability or released-value option
- Full-value or replacement-related option and cost
- High-value item declaration requirements
- Deductible, exclusions, repair or replacement discretion
- Notice, documentation, and claim deadlines
Do not describe mover valuation and optional insurance as the same product unless the documents actually say so.
Choose the clearest complete offer
Score documentation quality alongside price. A provider that corrects the inventory, explains variables, and writes commitments clearly reduces uncertainty before moving day.
- Verify company identity, registration, physical contact information, and complaint channels
- Record who performed the survey and who will transport the goods
- Ask unresolved questions in one written list
- Update the all-in budget with travel, overlap, cleaning, and non-mover costs
- Save the accepted estimate and every later written revision together
The goal is not the lowest first number; it is the clearest total for the same move.
Verify changeable details
These sources support regulatory or service-specific details in this guide. Recheck them before acting because rules, fees, and processes can change.
- Written, binding, and non-binding estimatesFederal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
- Estimating chargesFederal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
- Avoid scams when hiring a moving companyFederal Trade Commission