Better to Sell or Rent Your Home?

By Scott Boone

Image courtesy Public Domain Pictures

Once you’ve made the decision to move, most folks put their existing house or condo on the market.  While this logic makes sense for many homeowners, it isn’t always the best bet for every homeowner.  Not when the option of renting your home can offer so many advantages.

Sure, if you’re leveraged to the max, selling your existing home might be the only way to afford to move into a new one.  However, if your house has a lot of equity, you’re looking for some tax relief, or there’s even a small chance you could wind up moving back to the area in a few years, considering the rental option could be a win/win.  Here’s why:

How to Make a Mover Smile

By Scott Boone

Courtesy of Scott's Discount Movers

You made the decision to hire a mover.  That undoubtedly meant taking the time to thoroughly investigate and interview several moving companies. It also required you to put your faith in a mover to show up on time and to take care not to damage your belongings while being loaded and unloaded from the truck.  Now that the preliminaries are over, I thought I’d dedicate this week’s blog to helping you get along with your moving crew.

Making the First Move

By Scott Boone

Image courtesy of Health.mil

Even though I have helped more than 5,000 people move, I can still remember the first time I moved.  At the time, I was living in a 1-bedroom quad at the shore.  When I moved into the place 3-years before, all I had in the way of furniture was a futon couch that converted into a bed, a coffee table and a 19-inch color TV.  By the time I was ready to move into something a bit more spacious, I had pretty well filled the place up with furniture.  That was the good news.  The bad news was I had to move it all more than 100-miles away to a 2-bedroom townhouse.   Since my live-in girlfriend wasn’t going to be of much help other than to drive our car to the new place, I paid my buddy to help me move. I figured how hard could it be?  It didn’t take me long to find out.

How to Dress for Moving Success

By Scott Boone

Image courtesy of Scott's Discount Movers

You’ve done it.  You’ve packed your belongings, you’ve hired a moving company, and you’ve arranged your busy schedule to be on hand the day of the move.  I suppose you think the task is all but complete, right?  Not so fast, Sparky.   While you can organize and supervise a move, what you can’t control are the ways old Murphy can undermine your best-laid plans.   Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will, and at the worst possible time.  One of the best ways for Murphy to get his hooks into you is to dress inappropriately come moving day. 

What to do When Your Mover Lets You Down

By Scott Boone

Image courtesy of pixabay

Having done more than 5,000 moves, I always try to make sure that my clients get their money’s worth when they hire my firm.  That being said, any time you move everything you own, there is always the possibility of having one of your possessions damaged, lost or destroyed.  In fact, the farther you move, the more likely this can happen.  That’s because a number of interstate movers use multiple trucks and sometimes even transshipping warehouses to move you across the country. This means if you move cross country, there is a high probability that the truck and crew that packs your stuff up, won’t be the same ones who drop them off.  Either way, if you do have something that gets dinged, dented, dropped or destroyed, you need to know how to proceed to get satisfaction.

Moving Safety Tips

By Scott Boone

Image courtesy JBA

I always talk about the stress involved with packing and moving.  These stresses can come from the angst of having your normal routine curtailed while you pack.  It can come from the cost and expense associated with making a move.  It can be caused by having to deal with the stress imposed on other members of your family.  However, one of the things you shouldn’t have to stress out about are the safety concerns associated with making a move.

How to Perfectly Pack Paintings, Portraits & Pictures

By Scott Boone

Image courtesy of flickr

If you’re like most folks, your walls contain a good deal of framed artwork.  Whether we’re talking framed photographs, fine art prints, portraits of family and friends, or original works of art, everything mounted in a frame can be devilishly difficult to pack.  Not only are few frames precisely the same size, the frames themselves can be quite delicate, and some framed artwork is covered with a sheet of glass.  Talk about an accident waiting for a place to happen. If you want your framed artwork to make it from your current domicile to your new one in one piece, there are a few tricks of the trade you need to learn first.