A local move is believed to be easier to plan, organize, and execute than a long-distance interstate relocation. In most house-moving cases, the lower level of difficulty of local moves can be attributed to the shorter distance between Point A (your current home) and Point B (your new home). By definition, a local move is one that stays within around 50 miles and never leaves the state of origin.
The shorter distance alone is a reason enough to make you consider the DIY option of renting a moving truck and transporting your household items by yourself. And yet, if you have zero moving experience and you just know that you won’t be able to gather up your friendly posse of reliable helpers with your bugle call, then your only viable option is to hire local movers to get the job done quickly and safely.
The decision to hire the services of a local moving company will inevitably bring up questions about the local movers cost.
Is hiring local movers the right call for you?
Even though you’re only moving a short distance away, there are still a number of critical factors that can help you determine which way to go. How can you know for sure whether hiring local movers or organizing a DIY is the better option for you and your family?
- Distance. Moving within a radius of around 50 miles is an encouraging sign that your local move can be successful. Remember that the greater the distance to the new home, the riskier it becomes to try a self-moving, including from a financial point of view.
- Number of items. The more things you have for moving, the harder it will be to protect them all properly and to take them safely out of the home without professional assistance. What’s more, loading those household items into a moving truck can prove to be a much harder and riskier job for a person without any related experience.
- Special items. Are you planning to take any special items with you? If you want to move a piano or a pool table, a grandfather clock, or a bunch of antique furniture items, then the difficulty level of your move will increase drastically. In such cases, it’s best to trust experienced movers.
- Time. How many days do you have until Moving day? If you happen to have less than 2 weeks, then you may find it almost impossible to handle all the pre-move tasks before the scheduled move-out date. But if you have roughly 7 days left, or less!, then you should do yourself a favor and ask a reputable moving company to help you out.
- Moving experience. If you’ve never had to move house until that moment, it’ll definitely be much more difficult for you to organize a stress-free move by yourself. Moving from one place to another is just too much to ask for a person with no previous relocation experience and this is exactly why hiring experienced local movers makes all the sense in the world.
- Skills. Oftentimes, a successful residential move comes down to having good skills, especially when it comes to packing for a move. Do you think you will be able to pack up your things safely without any help? Keep in mind that packing is the most time-consuming task of them all.
- Stress. The stress of moving is real. If you find it hard to handle the moving stress that keeps building up the closer you get to Moving day, then it’s best to trust a professional moving company to take care of (almost) all the move-related details for you.
See also: Should you hire movers or do it yourself?
How much do local movers cost?
The average cost of local movers is approximately $80 per hour per mover.
It’s important to understand that the duration of a residential move can vary greatly depending on the size of your home, the number of items in it, the specific services you have requested or have to be performed to complete the move, and the distance to your new residence.
In other words, the longer your local movers work on your house move, the more money you will have to pay them in the end.
Broken down into different property sizes, the local movers costs look roughly like this:
| Home Size | Number of Movers | Hours spent on the job | Average Moving Cost |
| Studio | 2 | 3 | $480 |
| 1-bedroom | 2 | 4 | $640 |
| 2-bedroom | 3 | 6 | $1,440 |
| 3-bedroom | 4 | 7 | $2,240 |
| 4-bedroom | 4 | 9 | $2,880 |
- Studio: $480. Moving out of a studio apartment with the help of 2 movers can cost around $480 if the average loading, transportation, and unloading time is roughly 3 hours.
- 1-bedroom home: $640. Moving out of a 1-bedroom home should cost an average of $640 in case two local movers spend around 4 hours to complete the move.
- 2-bedroom home: $1,440. You can expect to pay around $1,440 if you’re moving out of a 2-bedroom home and the 3 local movers you’ve hired spend approximately 6 hours working on your residential move.
- 3-bedroom home: $2,240. Moving out of a 3-bedroom house can cost typically around $2,240 to move locally if 4 movers require roughly 7 hours to get the job done.
- 4-bedroom house: $2,880. If you happen to be moving out of a 4-bedroom house with the help of 4 local movers, then you should expect to pay an average of $2,880 for professional assistance.
All of the above prices are only average values and the actual local moving cost will vary in each relocation instance. For a much more accurate estimation of the moving expenses, use our free moving cost calculator.
Additional local moving costs
It goes without saying that you should expect to pay extra for each additional local moving service. Here are the additional relocation costs when you’re moving locally:
- Extra mover. Each additional mover will cost you roughly another $80. Nevertheless, your decision to hire an extra helper can turn out to be excellent because more movers are expected to finish the job faster, which in turn can help you lower the final moving bill.
- Travel fee. The majority of local movers will also charge their clients a travel fee – the time the moving crew requires to reach your home from the company’s office. This travel fee is usually charged as 1 extra hour of moving labor.
- Extra charges. You should be aware that you will have to dig deeper into your pocket for special circumstances, such as super heavy or oversized household goods (fee for handling bulky items), a long walk from your front door to the moving truck (long carry fee), lack of an operating elevator (elevator fee), and request of a delayed delivery (storage fee).
- Insurance. When moving locally with a local moving company, you automatically get Basic Limited Liability Protection for your goods which comes at no additional cost for you. However, this basic protection can never match the actual value of your possessions since its coverage is only $0.60 per pound per article. Do consider purchasing real moving insurance for your local move either through your local moving company or from a third party.
- Tipping movers. How much to tip local movers? If you’re satisfied with the service of your local movers, then it’s customary that you show your satisfaction by tipping your hired laborers. Generally, tips for local movers run about $5 per hour per mover for a good job, and roughly $8 per hour per mover for an outstanding job. Alternatively, tipping each mover around $40 per day is a pretty decent tip for local movers.
- Time of the year. Keep in mind that moving during the peak moving season (the summer period, weekends, and holidays) can cost you up to 20% more than standard local movers rates. This is why, if you have any flexibility when choosing your moving date, book your local move on a weekday anywhere between September and May.
Must-read: FIVE AND A HALF important things to know when hiring local movers
And finally, finding cheap local movers is another good way to bring down your local moving price. Ask local moving companies for in-house surveys, compare the issued moving estimates carefully, and choose the local mover that has offered the best services for the best price.
Read also: Local moving checklist: Essential tasks for a local move
