Let’s be honest: the process of moving generally isn’t considered “fun,” “great” or “stress-free” by any means. Add a hurricane into the mix and you’ve got yourself a recipe for a true nightmare. But with a little planning and a lot of perseverance, the show can go on, even when it’s up against a force of nature.
That’s what happened in the case of Tim and Alaina, a couple we recently moved from Washington, D.C. (him) and Manhattan (her) to Chicago to live together earlier this year. What they didn’t realize as they were planning their move was the fact that Superstorm Sandy would be rather literally coming along for the ride. Luckily, though, the couple had a Move Captain in their corner.
We caught up with Tim to hear more about the experience. Here’s what he had to share:
Walk us briefly through your moving process before the storm reared its ugly head.
Moveline took almost all the work out of the moving process for my girlfriend and I. We had no idea how difficult and time consuming it could be to find the right movers at the right price, especially since we’d need the movers to pick up my girlfriend’s things in Manhattan, my things in Washington, DC, then schlep the whole lot of it all the way out to Chicago.
From start to finish, Moveline simplified the entire process for us. After creating our account, we set up an appointment with Moveline to take an inventory of our belongings, which we conducted via Facetime on my iPhone. The inventory process was quick, precise and extremely convenient (and Brittany, our Move Captain, could not have been more friendly). Then, using our inventory, Moveline shared it with the moving companies they work with to get us the best price. Once we accepted, Moveline stayed in touch with us throughout the process to ensure that we were completely taken care of.
That level of attentiveness is what really stood out, and made my girlfriend and I feel like there was someone who was really looking out for us and our belongings.
So… moving during a superstorm. Tell us about that.
We were (already) working within a very tight timeline to complete this move. There were so many variables like current lease agreements, responsibilities with work, new job start dates, etc., that required a lot of planning and coordination. But hurricanes don’t care about your plans.
Moveline set us up with what I can only imagine was the only company that would move someone the day Hurricane Sandy slammed the east coast. While Manhattan was shutting down in preparation for the storm, these guys were loading a 28′ truck. While people were shuttering their homes and hoping for the best, these guys were driving for over six hours down I-95, dealing with bridge closures, traffic, and blistering wind and rain along the way. They showed up to my place, and with a quick smile and hello, started loading up my things in the dark and the rain.
Coming from a military family, I moved a lot as a kid, and I have never, ever seen something like that before. True professionals, those guys.
What was your reason for moving?
Eight months ago during a trip up (from DC), I met a girl in a bar during a lumberjack-themed party in Manhattan. She spotted me and asked me to pull a sparkled ornament off of the ceiling (as I am a taller fellow) and, being a sucker for a pretty face, I happily obliged.
When I handed her the ornament, she took it, said, “You’d look prettier like this,” and rubbed the sparkles into my beard. I fell madly, deeply in love in that moment, and spent the next two months vowing to sun and stars that, one day, she would be mine. We started dating and, eight months later, decided to move to a new city together.
And move they did.
In the end, it doesn’t matter if you’re moving to a new home for a relationship, a career, or just a change of scenery – obstacles will present themselves in the middle of what’s already an inherently stressful situation. With services like Moveline’s, folks like Tim and Alaina can get on with their lives, even in the face of adversity, thanks to a bit of professional tenacity from people who care about getting the job done right.
Stories like this are the reason we do what we do. Life is stressful (and awesome and scary and great) enough without adding frustration and a few 80 mph winds into the mix. We’re happy to take the edge off and get you where you’re going in one piece, with your possessions all accounted for and your sanity intact. So, here’s wishing Tim and Alaina a very happy future together. Congrats on your move, guys! Cheers!
Learn more about how Moveline works.
Today marks the debut of a more modern Moveline. For the past few weeks, we’ve been hard at work on a redesign of Moveline.com, and we’re excited to share the progress with you all. Harrison Weber, fellow Virginian and Design Editor at The Next Web, wrote a quick review of the redesign and describes the “significant polish” that comes with the new look.
What’s new?
We have a new homepage that (we think) does a much better job of showing off the product and explaining what we do. Over the coming weeks, expect to see more content that will also help people understand the process and answer their questions.
As you may have noticed, the blog is also new. The new Moveline features a brighter palette and updated typography. We moved to a new platform called Jekyll that gives us greater control over how we create and render posts. For you guys, all you should notice is cleaner, more readable articles.
Most importantly, we’ve rebuilt the underlying grid of Moveline to be more responsive, which means Moveline is now more accessible across mobile and tablet devices. We still have a long way to go in making a seamless mobile web experience, but this redesign brings a huge improvement to browsing Moveline on the go.
Special thanks
In addition to our core product team, we had some help from talented designers to bring the new Moveline to life.
Our friend Rob Weychert defined the new visual style for the product and chose the new typefaces (Chapparal Pro, Freight) which we think are pretty slick. Anthony Irwin at Modea illustrated and animated our new homepage video. We can’t stop watching it.
Find something that’s broken?
Please tell us so we can fix it! Email us at support@moveline.com with a screenshot. The first 10 bugs submitted will receive a limited edition Moveline t-shirt from our Hurricane Sandy adventures.
Ready to move? Build your move inventory with Moveline, today.
A friend of mine just called with a nightmare Hurricane Sandy scenario: him and his girlfriend finally got back into her first-floor Hoboken apartment, and it was destroyed. Most of the furniture and everything on the floor was totally trashed – covered in filth from having sat in flood water for several days. There were, however, many things tha were still salvageable, which had been off the floor or in a loft, that needed to be moved about immediately, before mold ruined what remained.
He called me directly, and within 30 minutes, we had a crew from a high-quality NYC moving company lined up to arrive first thing tomorrow morning, and a storage unit reserved to hold the stuff until they can find a new apartment.
For the next two weeks, if you are in this or any similar emergency situation due to Hurricane Sandy, Moveline will be available to connect you to the moving and storage help you need. In addition to our standard guaranteed-quote product, we will also assist you in connecting with hourly crews, or just finding the cheapest place to rent a truck. When you identify your move as hurricane-related, we will also take any commission we would have earned on that transaction, and give it back to you as a discount, when applicable.
Please call our support line at (800) 579-0635 or email us at support@moveline.com for immediate assistance. The Moveline team is at your service.
Ready to move? Build your move inventory with Moveline today.
We’d like to share a quick announcement: our team has just raised a $1.5 million seed investment round to fuel our mission to redesig and simplify the customer moving experience and bring transparency to the industry. With these resources, we’ll be hiring new team members, adding to our web and mobile platforms, and expanding our operations to new cities.
After completing the TechStars NYC program in June, we saw tremendous interest from angel investors and venture capital funds who wanted to back Moveline. As a result, we were in the fortunate position to choose our investors and surround our team with incredibly smart people. Each of our investors are ready to roll up their sleeves and help us grow.
The fine folks at ffVC led our round. They were impressed by our work ethic, passion for product, and the promise of our business model. After speaking with founders across their porfolio, we were impressed by the firm’s reputation for being truly friendly and helpful to entrepreneurs as they scaled from being an upstart to a high-growth company that dominates its category. We’re pleased that as part of the investment, John Frankel, Partner and Founder of ffVC will be joining our board.
To add to the round, we looked for investors who:
- believe in our vision for the future of moving
- have firsthand experience starting and scaling companies
- focus on early-stage startups
Investing alongside ffVC are: Chris Sacca’s Lowercase Capital, Quotidian Ventures, David Tisch’s Box Group, 500 Startups, David Cohen, Josh Guttman, Bill Boebel, Rony Kahan, Jason Seats, David Calone, Thomas Wisniewski, and Paul Sethi.
We’re excited that with these new relationships and some fresh grease on the wheels, we’re picking up speed and carrying our momentum into expansion. It’s been a true honor to serve New Yorkers since launching in June, and we’ve been floored by the city’s response to Moveline. We can’t wait to share our product with the rest of you — we’re coming to your city as fast as we can.
Ready to move? Learn about how Moveline streamlines the process.
As Hurricane Sandy heads our way, and the city battens down the hatches for Frankenstorm, we’re thinking about home damages in natural disasters. In 2011, Hurricane Irene caused $15.6 billion in damages in the U.S., and according to most reports, we can expect Sandy to surpass that figure.
If you live in NYC, Jersey, or anywhere else along the path of the storm, we have some advice.
First, get yourself safe, and evacuate if you’re told by local officials. Then, create a home inventory of your stuff. If you have a renter’s or a home owner’s insurance policy that covers flooding or hurricane damages, you’ll be glad you did. 20 minutes spent creating a record of what you own and the condition of your stuff before the storm hits can go a long way in substantiating damage claims and save you thousands of dollars in the aftermath of a natural disaster.
To be clear, Moveline’s not an insurance company, but we do know a few things about home inventories.
Here are our tips for doing it right:
Detail is your friend
We recommend filming a video tour of your place, because the more detail you capture about an item, the better your chances of seeing a payout. Walk through each room in your place, and talk about items as they come into frame. Describe the item, noting things like where you bought it and declare a value for it before moving onto the next. Be especially thorough with items that are prone to theft or damage, or of high value, including flat screen TVs, antiques, and collectibles.
Document everything
Everything you own has a replacement value — the cost of replacing an item in its current condition. Your clothing, car parts in the garage, dishes, and furniture may not be worth much individually, but when you add it all up, it’s a huge expense to buy these things new.
Store the inventory in the cloud
Your records can’t help you if it’s kept on a hard drive or in a filing cabinet that floods. If you already have an inventory on hand, transfer it to Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Docs so you know the files are safe. If you don’t have one yet, you can film one using Moveline’s iPhone app, which will automatically sync the files to a secure AWS server in the cloud.
For tips on how to film a home inventory, check out our Video Instructions. Most of all, good luck with Frankenstorm, and be safe.
Image credit: Weather Bell via The Atlantic.
The first version of our iPhone app is here. You can read news about its release in TechCrunch, check out the features here, and download it in the App Store. In Moveline for iPhone, we’ve built a new product that improves the otherwise painful experience of moving, and launched an idea that changes the moving industry for the better, and forever.
Bringing the moving process into a new era
In 2012, we can buy a car without visiting a dealership, and hail town cars from our smartphones. Still, we can’t get a worthy estimate for a move without giving up the lunch hour for a sales call. The way we shop for everything else has evolved — moving hasn’t kept up.
For the first version of Moveline for iPhone, we’ve started with a fresh take on the home inventory: the first, most critical step in working with a moving company.
Home inventories in the dark ages
The most powerful information about a move is the customer’s inventory — the list of stuff they have to move. This list is infinitely useful to moving companies. From it, they can determine how much space the customer’s things will take up on a truck for interstate shipping, how many boxes they’ll need to pack everything, and what kind of services will be required on the job. More importantly, it helps them decide how many people they’ll need to perform the move, how long it will take, and how much to charge for their services. Because this information is so important, most moving companies require a home inventory before giving their customers a quote on their move.
To date, the practice of creating home inventories has remained stale and unfriendly to customers. Good moving companies send a salesperson to the customer’s home to create the inventory by walking through each room, writing down each item that has to be moved, and estimating the boxes needed to pack smaller stuff. These appointments are a time-sink for customers, not to mention the awkward experience of watching a stranger walk through their place and open cabinets. By the end of the visit, they still only have one quote on the table. To compare prices from 3 moving companies (as savvy consumers should), they have to repeat this 3 times.
It’s expensive for moving companies to keep an army of sales people in the field, so some companies cut corners and let customers list their stuff over the phone. It’s less hassle, but also dangerous: because the estimator on the other line can’t actually see the stuff the customer has to move, details get lost that otherwise factor into the estimates. Phone inventories are notoriously inaccurate, and since everything is based on faulty data, they often lead to customers paying more and experiencing sloppy moves.
Finally, there’s an app for that
Our goal was simple. We aimed to create a product that gives people an easy way to get prices from several moving companies based on a single inventory — one that gives movers the information they depend on to plan and execute a quality move.
Mobile video for efficient, accurate inventories
We’ve taken advantage of the advancement in smartphone tech and faster bandwidth to finally do visual home inventories at scale without compromising detail.
Using Moveline for iPhone, customers can shoot a quick room-by-room video tour of their place, or connect with one of our Move Captains using video chat to show us the stuff they’d like to move. We see the same things salespeople see when they walk through a customer’s home, without the cost or invasion of on-site visits. Based on the footage, our in-house team of trained estimators create the customer’s inventory using software we’ve spent years developing based on data from hundreds of past moves. When they’re done, they send the inventory back to the customer to make decisions about which things to take with them, what to put in storage, or leave behind, and let the customer control the inventory from there.
One inventory. One estimate. Apples-to-apples price comparison
When customers have finalized their inventory, they can submit it back to Moveline for quotes. We strip the move of any personally identifiable information about the customer, and shop it around to the best moving companies in town to get competitive quotes, all based on the same information. We screen our network of moving companies heavily for quality; only approved providers can bid on Moveline jobs.
Using Moveline, customers get to review 3-5 quotes (depending on providers’ schedules) from moving companies all at once. These prices are guaranteed. As long as the inventory and the other job details stay the same, the prices they see for the move are exactly what they’ll pay.
Feedback so far
The app is just now available for download by the public, but we’ve been live doing video and FaceTime inventories since June (to early users who sent videos via Dropbox, thanks for your patience) and been beta testing the app on live moves for the past few weeks. What we’ve heard from people who’ve used it has surprised even us.
Customers love our inventory process because:
- It saves time. They can skip the in-home visits, spend 15-20 minutes filming their place, and they’re done.
- They’re not dealing with pushy salespeople. They decide based objective information and compare prices straight.
- It’s private. Contact info and videos are never shared outside Moveline, which means no unwanted calls.
- They trust the results. No of second-guessing their own box estimates using online inventory forms, they have confidence knowing that the inventory was created by an expert.
The moving companies we work with love it because:
- They believe the numbers, because they’re based on a visual survey.
- They provide all the information needed to prepare the crew for a solid move.
- Business comes to them. No need to send salespeople to quote, they just report the price.
Coming up next
This app is our first foray into mobile, but there’s more to come. We’ll be adding more features to the app over the coming months to make it useful in other stages of the move. We also have plans to extend the app to other platforms in the future. Until then, Moveline customers who don’t own an iOS device can still connect with us over other video chat platforms like Google Hangout and Skype.
For now, we’re excited about the app’s release, and look forward to receiving feedback, fixes, and feature requests from the first wave of downloads so we can make it even better.
If you’d like to know more about the app, or have suggestions to make it better, drop us a line at support@moveline.com. We’d love to hear from you.
Ready to move? Build your move inventory today with Moveline.
On Monday, we hosted a NYC Real Estate Technology Startups meetup at the TechStars NYC office. It was the group’s third meetup, and its largest yet. We started with networking over beer and pizza, where the founders of fledgling startups like CompStak, DoorMates, RealDirect and RentHackr were in full force. The offline world was also represented, with brokers from Citi Habitats and executives from Level Group(http://www.levelgroup.com) present.
We then moved into demos.
Fred Cook, co-founder of Moveline, started by breaking down the moving industry. He spoke to familiar problems like the pain of arranging in-home estimates, notoriously poor customer service, and bomb-dropping hidden fees. Next, he demoed Moveline and presented how we solve these common problems using software like our video inventory app and seriously great service from Move Captains. Fred wrapped with hints at features in our pipeline that improve our system for delivering guaranteed prices.
Laura Temel, CEO of PadTies followed Fred. Laura explained that listings for off-campus housing in college towns remains offline. PadTies is bringing this inventory to the web and introducing optimized tools for student rentals. They offer a rental management application that allows students (or their parents) to pay rent online, and keep track of sublets and security deposits because, well punching holes in walls… it happens in off-campus housing. PadTies is currently open to students at Cornell.
Sebastian Delmont and Jared Kleinstein of StreetEasy, CTO and “Mr. Manager” respectively, rounded out the evening. The duo took us on a tour of StreetEasy behind the paywall, and shared stories of the company’s history spanning back to 2007. They highlighted the application’s extensive set of premium tools for real estate professionals, which includes recorded sales information for units and buildings, broker profiles, folders, and a really neat feature that lets user search by custom boundary (because we all know how drastic of a change one can see in NYC real estate by walking just one block). They also showed us StreetEasy’s Own Your Home blog, where they showcase home and real-estate articles written by domain experts. Historically, the company viewed itself as an unbiased source of information. The new blog is the company’s first foray into expressing an opinion on the market. Bottom line: visit StreetEasy for all things NYC Real Estate.
Overall, the meetup represented the vibrant Gotham real estate tech community and its collective efforts to improve how New Yorkers rent, buy and move into a new place.
The next meetup is slotted for October. Stay tuned for an announcement of the schedule — we hope to see you there!
Learn more about how Moveline is creating a radically easier way to move.
In tech circles, it’s common knowledge that “software is eating the world”. In every industry, there are at least a handful of startups who are making the bet that software will revolutionize the way that people make decisions and purchase products and services.
In New York City, real estate is massive. From renting apartments, to purchasing multi-million dollar condos, to all the other services (such as moving!) that people need during this transition, consumers, businesses, realtors and brokers are increasing using software to perform these tasks.
If you’re in New York City this Monday, come by TechStars NYC for the NYC Real Estate Technology Startups Meetup to meet the entrepreneurs who are building the future of real estate. Moveline is hosting, and providing food and drinks.
See presentations by myself (@frederickcook), representing Moveline, Laura Temel (@lauratemel) of PatTies, and Sebastian Delmont (@sd) of StreetEasy.
If you aren’t in NYC, follow along at @nycrets or #nycrets.
Learn more about how Moveline is creating a radically easier way to move.
Before you turn in your keys and collect your new ones, have you taken care of these errands?
Shut off utilities
Whether you rented or owned your previous home, if the utilities are in your name turn them off and/or get them transferred before leaving. To be safe, set the shut-off for the day after you leave and turn them on a day before you arrive. This way, you’ll never be without what you need.
Take out (all) the garbage
This is more about karma than anything else; do unto others and all that good stuff. If you have a lot more than your usual load, contact your provider to make sure they can pick it up on trash day. Some cities charge additional fees for discarded furniture and extra bags you have at the curb.
Wash your clothes
Why pack dirty things? This will be just another thing to take care of while unpacking, and you might not know where to do your laundry yet. It’s also hard to remember which clothes are clean and which ones are dirty by the time you unpack.
Forward your mail
You might know you’re moving, but your bank and magazine subscriptions do not. A quick trip to the USPS website and a $1 fee can get your mail to wherever you’re going. Let friends and family know about your new address too.
Check your storage areas
Depending on the size of your home, your storage places might be fairly extensive. Clean out the crawlspace and that weird cabinet behind the stairs. Check the space above your refrigerator — it can be a lurking place for leftover food items. Look through your storage spaces for anything you might have left unpacked. Did you leave clothes in your dresser? Check with your movers to see if this is okay. Some movers prefer to move your clothes in the drawers, other do not allow it.
Do one last sweep through
My mother would make me check under my bed twice before we moved or even left a vacation hotel room, and she was right. Two out of three times there would be nothing, but when I did leave something it would have definitely been missed. Look around for inconspicuous objects like air conditioners and mirrors that you pass by everyday, but might not think about.
Clean top to bottom
Giving your space a good cleaning is crucial, especially when you’re renting. This saves your security deposit and in turn saves you money.
Tackle the chore by starting with one room and work your way through the space. In the kitchen, pay special attention to any counter spaces, cupboards and the refrigerator and freezer, food can leave crumbs and bits behind when stored for long periods of time. When cleaning your bathroom, watch out for the mold that can lurk along the bottom of your shower curtain and in the cracks of the bathtub, as well as any soap residue. Once you finish, top the job off with a good vacuum and dusting. These are the little things you might have neglected, but are sure to deplete your security deposit if taken on by your landlord and a cleaning service.
Sometimes with the best cleaning effort, it’s easy to forget something. Rentals, especially those managed by a third party management company, relish in profiting off the fines they charge on security deposits. $35 to clean the baseboards, $15 for not wiping the ceiling fan blades… it all adds up. If you’re of the “spend money, not time” school of life, try this pro tip: call the landlord and ask which cleaning service they use to make-ready the apartment for new tenants. Hire them; you know they’re familiar with the units and will clean up to management’s standards, and they’re often a little cheaper than your average maid service. Most management companies end up paying for professional cleaning even after you clean. You might as well save yourself the elbow grease when you’ve got forty other items on that moving to-do list.
Check out more moving day tips or move organizing tips from Moveline, a radically easier way to move.
Maintaining your sanity during a major move is tricky. With so many details floating around — the move, the new apartment, the dog’s new vet — it can be stressful trying to keep everything straight. Here are some of our best tips for getting things organized before a major move:
Add key contacts to your phone
Store all the names, numbers, and email addresses of anyone associated with your move, starting with your Move Captain. Beyond that, add info for your crew foreman and the dispatch number for your moving company. Your Captain can always help you get in touch with the movers and coordinate the details, but it’s a good idea to keep these numbers stored where you’ll need them most.
Bookmark addresses and important locations
Which apartment are you moving into again? Where is your nearest Post Office or grocery store? To keep you from constantly searching, pin these spots in one place and build a resource for the next time the question comes up. We recommend Google Maps for this. It’s easy to use, universally recognized, and is a great way to share these locations with other people who might be helping on moving day.
Start a Moving Calendar
Depending on your moving method, you might have several dates and appointments to keep up. When is your container getting dropped off? How long will you be on the road? Should you ship something by a certain time to meet your arrival date? Note things here to keep you on track during the move.
Color Code Your Boxes With Tape
Sharpies are great for labeling boxes, but when it comes time to sort boxes by room, they all look the same. To prevent mixups, it can be helpful to color-code boxes when you’re labeling them so the crew can easily decide where to place them. Several packing tapes come in a variety of colors and styles other than clear plastic. If you have them on hand, try taping neon post-it notes to your boxes using clear tape. This step is especially helpful if you’re moving a large family.
Print out your Inventory
Your inventory list might have gotten you quotes, but it also comes in handy on moving day. During the loading and unloading process, keep your inventory at hand; using the inventory throughout the move to mark things as they get put in storage or unloaded from the truck can be a great way to keep tabs on the progress of your move. If you’re hiring a crew for a long-distance move, the driver will also be documenting the Inventory as items get loaded on the truck.
Keep an “Everything Folder” for Your Move
Before things get hectic, pickup a folder or a large envelope with all your important papers inside of it. This can include your Bill of Lading and other documents you sign such as leases, moving contracts, and insurance declarations. As things get put into boxes, it’s easy to misplace important papers; keep these out and close by for reference or when you need it.
There are hundreds of minor details to keep in mind while moving, but with a little organization upfront, your move will be much easier.
Check out more checklists for moving or pre-move tips from Moveline, a radically easier way to move.