Three checks tell you most of what you need: whether the estimate comes from someone who actually looked at your home, who staffs the truck on the day, and whether recent reviews repeat the same specifics. A price quoted sight unseen is a guess, and guesses get corrected on your driveway. Daymakers Moving & Storage has run local and long-distance jobs as a moving company in Bloomington, MN since 2015, and we quote every move in person or over live video instead of over the phone. Our crews are trained Daymakers movers rather than temps hired that morning. Ask the next company you call those same two questions and the field thins out quickly.
What should I verify before I call anyone?
Start with the things a company cannot talk its way around. A physical address, a published phone number that a person answers, and proof of current licensing and insurance are the baseline, and any mover should hand all three over without hesitating. Businesses that operate purely through a lead form are harder to hold accountable later, because the company that sells you the job is not always the company that shows up to do it. Ask directly whether your move will be performed by the company’s own crew and trucks or passed to someone else.
The second layer is fit. A mover who handles studio apartments all week is not automatically the right choice for a four-bedroom house with a piano on the second floor, and the reverse is just as true. Local movers work across the full range in this market, from single item pickups to full households, which is why the first question asked is what is actually in the home rather than how many bedrooms it has. Two houses with the same square footage can take a four-hour difference in labor depending on what is inside them.
Why does an in-home or video estimate matter more than a phone quote?
A phone quote prices an assumption. The person on the other end has not seen the treadmill in the basement, the sectional that came in through a window, or the fact that the truck cannot get within eighty feet of your door. Those details are exactly what changes the hours, and when they surface on moving day, the number changes with them. That is where most of the horror stories people tell about movers actually begin.
A walkthrough removes the guesswork before anyone commits. We estimate in person or over a live video call, which lets us count what is going on and see the parts of the job that cost time: stair runs, tight landings, the distance from the door to where a truck can legally park. Bloomington has a wide mix of housing stock, from postwar ramblers near the older neighborhoods to newer high-rise condos closer to the Mall of America, and the access problems are completely different in each. Seeing it first is the only honest way to price it.
Who actually shows up on moving day?
This is the question people forget to ask, and it decides more about how the day goes than the hourly rate does. Some companies fill trucks with day labor hired that morning, which means the person carrying your grandmother’s armoire may have been handed the job an hour earlier. We do not work that way. Every crew member on a Daymakers job is one of our trained movers, and that continuity is why our customers keep mentioning the same thing in reviews: that the crew worked as a unit rather than as strangers who met in a parking lot.
Ask the company outright whether the crew is theirs and whether the truck is theirs. On our long-distance jobs, your belongings travel on our own truck rather than being consolidated with other households, so nothing sits in a warehouse waiting for a load to fill. A company that cannot answer that clearly is telling you something.
What to have ready before the estimate
- A walk of every room, including the garage, basement, and any storage locker
- Anything not going on the truck, flagged so it is not counted
- Access notes: stair counts, elevator rules, parking restrictions, gate codes
- Specialty items named specifically, such as a piano, safe, treadmill or aquarium
- Your target date and how much flexibility you have around it
Not sure whether the company you’re calling sends its own crew or day labor? Give us a call at (651) 461-1951, and we’ll answer that plainly before you compare us to anyone else.
What do reliable movers do about stairs, elevators, and long carries?
They tell you about them in advance. Access conditions genuinely change the labor involved, and no honest mover pretends otherwise, but there is a difference between explaining a long carry during the estimate and adding a line item to the invoice after the truck is loaded. A company that raises it early is a company that intends to charge you what it quoted. We cover this in more detail in our guide to how stairs, elevators, and long-carry situations get handled.
Building rules add another layer, particularly in condos and larger apartment buildings. Many require a certificate of insurance on file before a crew can use the service elevator, and some restrict moves to weekday hours or a booked window. Ask your mover whether they handle that paperwork with the building directly, because the alternative is you chasing a property manager the week of your move.
How do I read moving reviews without being fooled?
Ignore the star average and read for repetition. A single glowing review tells you almost nothing, but twenty people independently mentioning that the crew finished under the estimate, or that nothing arrived broken, is a pattern that is hard to manufacture. Look for reviews that name specifics, because vague praise is cheap and detail is not. Across our Google and Facebook reviews, the themes that come up repeatedly are crews arriving on time, careful wrapping, and finishing within the window we quoted.
Recency matters as much as volume. A company with hundreds of reviews that stop two years ago is a different business today than the one those reviewers hired. Sort by newest and read a dozen. If the recent ones contradict the old ones, believe the recent ones.
When should I book a mover in Bloomington?
Two to three weeks ahead for a local move, and four to six weeks for anything long distance. Those windows stretch considerably between May and September, when most leases turn over and most closings land, and the last weekend of any month is the hardest slot in the calendar to get anywhere in the metro. Booking early is less about price than about getting the date you actually need.
Flexibility buys you options. A midweek move in the middle of the month is easier to schedule than the 30th of June, and if your dates have any give in them, say so when you call. Our post on planning around peak moving season covers how far ahead the calendar tends to fill.
Talk to our Bloomington team
Schedule a walkthrough and get a real number before you commit to anyone. Call our Bloomington office at (651) 461-1951, or stop by 8400 Normandale Lake Blvd #920, Bloomington, MN 55437. We are open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 5 pm, Saturday from 8 am to noon, and Sunday by appointment.
Frequently asked questions
Should a moving company charge for an estimate?
No. A walkthrough estimate should be free, whether it happens in your home or over a live video call. Charging for one is unusual in this market. What you are looking for is a company willing to spend the time to see the job properly, since that is what makes the resulting number reliable.
What is the difference between a binding and a non-binding estimate?
A binding estimate locks the price for the scope agreed, while a non-binding estimate is an informed projection that can move with the actual hours or weight. Ask which one you are being given and get it in writing. Either can be fair, but only if you know which you have.
Is the cheapest quote usually a problem?
Not always, but a quote well below every other bid usually means something was left out of the scope or the crew is not the company’s own. Compare what each quote includes rather than the total. A number that assumes no stairs and no packing is not comparable to one that accounts for both.
What should I do if a mover refuses to do a walkthrough?
Treat it as an answer. A company unwilling to look at the job before pricing it is either very confident or not planning to honor the number. You are free to keep them on the list, but weight the quote accordingly and expect the final figure to differ.
How far outside Bloomington will a local crew travel?
Most local movers in this market cover the whole Twin Cities metro and price travel time into the job. We work throughout the metro and out into western Wisconsin, so a move from Bloomington to Edina, Eagan, or Minneapolis is routine rather than a special arrangement.
Ready to compare us against whoever else you’re considering? Call (651) 461-1951, or stop by 8400 Normandale Lake Blvd #920, Bloomington, MN 55437. We’ll walk the job with you, in person or on video, before we put a number on it.
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