Start your provider list with the jobs your move requires—not with a collection of recommended names. For each job, identify candidates, check their fit, and record what you have actually confirmed. Treat a referral as a starting point, not proof that a provider is right for your budget, property, or schedule.
Research providers by move stage
Separate time-sensitive decisions from services that can wait. Use these categories as a planning checklist, keeping only those relevant to your move.
- Before committing to a home: lenders, home inspectors, and specialists needed to investigate particular property concerns. Ask about scope, scheduling, written deliverables, and costs.
- Before moving day: movers, packing services, storage providers, and cleaners. Describe access restrictions, stairs, bulky items, and any gap between leaving one home and entering the next.
- Before arrival: electricity, gas, water, sewer, waste collection, and internet. Confirm which providers serve the exact address and ask about activation dates and any required appointments.
- After access is confirmed: locksmiths, contractors, plumbers, electricians, heating and cooling technicians, and ongoing maintenance services. Prioritize immediate needs over optional improvements.
Ask questions that test fit—not just price
Give each candidate the same description of the work so their responses are easier to compare. A useful inquiry includes the location, preferred dates, access details, tasks requested, and anything you want excluded.
- Can you serve this address and handle this specific scope of work?
- Is the proposed date confirmed or tentative, and what is required to reserve it?
- Who will perform the work, and will any part be subcontracted?
- What does the written estimate include and exclude? What could change the total?
- What are the deposit, payment, cancellation, and rescheduling terms?
- What licensing or insurance applies to this work, and how can I independently check the information provided?
- How are delays, damage, incomplete work, or other concerns handled?
Add category-specific questions. Ask movers about handling special items and documenting damage. Ask inspectors what their inspection excludes and when the report will arrive. Ask lenders for written cost information using comparable financing assumptions. Ask contractors how scope changes will be approved and priced.
Verify referrals before marking them ready to book
- Record where each name came from. If an independent real estate agent or another professional makes a referral, ask why the provider might fit your needs and whether there is a referral or financial relationship.
- Request written details. Keep the scope, estimate, terms, and scheduling response rather than relying on a phone conversation alone.
- Check relevant credentials through the appropriate licensing authority, where licensing applies. Ask how to confirm insurance information independently rather than treating a website badge as verification.
- Read reviews for recurring details about communication, scheduling, and problem resolution. Use them to develop follow-up questions, not as a substitute for checking qualifications.
- Resolve unanswered questions before paying or signing. Keep an alternative candidate for time-sensitive work when practical.
Keep a short, usable contact tracker
Use one shared spreadsheet or document. Create a row for each candidate with fields for service category, move stage, contact details, referral source, scope, estimate date, quoted amount, exclusions, availability, verification notes, next action, and booking status.
Use clear statuses such as researching, contacted, awaiting documents, ready to decide, and booked. Date every availability note and record when estimates expire. Keep sensitive financial documents out of the shared tracker; ask the relevant provider how to submit them securely.
Coordinate service dates with your real estate timeline
For real-estate-specific questions, ask your agent for relocation guidance and clarification of inspection, closing, and possession milestones. Confirm when you will have permission to access the property before scheduling work there. Then reconfirm dates directly with each provider rather than assuming the real estate timeline reserves their availability.
Draft status: Unpublished and requiring human factual and editorial review. No approved local provider facts, sources, or link destinations were supplied, so this article provides general planning guidance rather than verified recommendations. Relocation-guidance and contact links require editorial confirmation before publication.