Well, we did book our move with a reputable moving company who we hope will help us with our packing and long distance move. They arrived at our house last week and did a survey of our furnishings and provided a competitive quote. We had shopped for 3 other quotes and found this company, LA Pro movers, to have a professional demeanor, proper credentials (insurance ppw), and competitive price.

Recently, we read an article that helped us identify red flags with moving companies:

“The mover doesn’t offer or agree to an on-site inspection of your household goods and gives an estimate over the phone or Internet—sight-unseen. These estimates often sound too good-to-be-true. They usually are.

• The moving company demands cash or a large deposit before the move.
• The mover doesn’t provide you with a copy of Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move, a booklet movers are required by Federal regulations to supply to their customers in the planning stages of interstate moves.
• The company’s website has no local address and no information about licensing or insurance.
• The mover claims all goods are covered by their insurance.
• When you call the mover, the telephone is answered with a generic “Movers” or “Moving company,” rather than the company’s name.
• Offices and warehouse are in poor condition or nonexistent.
• On moving day, a rental truck arrives rather than a company-owned and marked fleet truck.”

This is a great article that can be found at: http://moving.about.com/od/hiringamovingcompany/a/research.htm

We followed these steps when finding our moving company. We’ll see how it works out. We have 2 weeks to complete the packing and get moved into our house in Arizona.

We’ll see what lies in store.