Are you considering downsizing, but the thought of sorting through decades worth of possessions and packing up your home stops you dead in your tracks? To help you get the process jumpstarted, you may want to seek out a secret weapon.
On a recent segment of Eric’s radio show, he spoke with Joyce Nohowel of TAD Relocation, a nationally accredited move management company with 16 years of service and more than 4,500 moves. Joyce provides insight on the full spectrum of move management services and how these dedicated professionals can provide both logistical and emotional support during the downsizing process.
Eric: I'm so happy to have our good friend Joyce Nohowel with us. Joyce is with TAD Relocation, a professional move management company here in the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia area. TAD and I have worked on and off together for the last eight or nine years now. Some people may or may not know what a move manager is, so let's just start today's conversation with what do you do? What is a move manager?
Joyce: We like to use the analogy that we are the wedding planner of the moving industry. Both are driven by events. A move is an event and a wedding is an event. As a wedding of the move industry, what we like to do is to help put together an overarching plan for people. Oh yay, we're getting married. Yay, we're going to move. That is a triggering event. We help put together the plan that helps them achieve that goal of a nice, easy move.
There are a lot of things that can go into a move. After we put together the plan, we help them [clients] figure out a couple of the key triggers. One is getting your home ready for sale. We can help them determine what needs to happen in order to have that sale occur quickly and for the most amount of money. We help with decluttering, helping disperse items that are no longer wanted so that their home looks attractive, maybe do a little bit of staging or so forth.
Then we focus on the move to their new home, because that's the exciting part for the people who are selling, of course. We'll help them put together a floor plan, figure out what pieces are going to fit, maybe buy a few new pieces. Then we help them with the actual move: packing, unpacking, putting things away, hanging pictures, making their beds, connecting their lamps, getting rid of all the trash so when they walk in at the end of move-in day it looks like they've lived there for two weeks. How cool is that to a very busy professional family or a senior citizen and their family?
Eric: Exactly, my folks used TAD Relocation some years ago. They used them twice, actually. Once to move to Fallsgrove from the house that I live in now. They moved out of a 3,5000 square foot single-family house into about a 2,500 square foot condo. It was a big condo, so they didn't have to downsize that much.
Joyce: That is a big condo, yes.
Eric: But then from 2,500 [square feet] they moved to 1,400. The biggest challenge that I see in the sale of property, especially for seniors who have been in a home for a long, long time, is just how do I get rid of my stuff? How do I get through that process and decide what I can sell, give away, or throw away?
You guys did a great job with my folks of actually ... They left the house early in the morning and they moved in that night. Everything was hung and everything was where you would expect it to be because y'all had taken pictures of where photos were hung on the wall and the orientation of things [from their prior residence]. It's such a great benefit. It's worth the money to hire a professional move manager to facilitate your life so you can continue to operate and not have to plow through cleaning things up and organizing things all over again.
Joyce: Exactly. In fact, I bet you were not that involved in the process because we were doing that for you.
Eric: Yes.
Joyce: We become the brother/sister of the family of the seniors. As I say, I'm your sister for a while, but I just don't stay for Thanksgiving dinner. As a result, we're not the children and we're not bringing the baggage that can come along with it. We're an advocate for the people that are moving, and we represent their needs and making sure they take the things they want. It's not as emotional when we get involved. We're very logical, but we're also very empathetic. We're part logistics and part social worker.
Eric: I love that. In fact, when my sister, brother and I went over for a get-together, my parents had tables of things laid out in their living room. They had decided not to give anything away before they moved. You guys helped them think through what they could actually keep. They then used a good approach if you're thinking about giving your stuff away. Have the kids ... I start with my sister because she was the youngest. Then it was me and then my brother on the first choice of what was there. Then the second choice was me first, my brother, then my sister. The third choice was my brother, then my sister. It was a nice rotation. You help them, as you say, like a social worker, and then what was the other?
Joyce: Logistics manager.
Eric: Logistics manager. You organized it. You got them moved. You helped them organize to get rid of their stuff either by giving it to us [children], selling it, throwing it away, or donating [it].
Joyce: We actually work in that mode. I always advocate for the folks that are moving first. I always say, "You first, then your loved ones, your family, your friends and so forth. Then sale, donation, and trash," literally in that order.
Eric: You're listening today, and perhaps you're thinking, "Ah, but my folks live some place else. I wish I had Joyce there." You can have someone like Joyce there. You can reach out to Joyce. Joyce, your best number is what?
Joyce: 240-403-0177. That's the TAD Relocation office.
Eric: If you call there and you think, "Hey, I really need somebody in Florida. I need somebody in Alaska," it doesn't really matter. Move managers can be found. Joyce and TAD Relocation can help you segue with somebody. Perhaps you need to get some stuff from Alaska here to DC. They can work through that process with you. They're great at that. They offer light moving services as well. Tell us a little bit about that.
Joyce: That's correct. A lot of times people want to move within the community they already live, but they're going into a smaller location. We found that the smaller moves tend to not be addressed economically or efficiently by the accredited movers that are out there in the marketplace today, so we created our own small division. We do in-house moves. We can help with getting the sofa to the daughter. We can get things to donation, to sale, and to trash.
Eric: Great. Now some tips on where to donate or sell your items. Any thoughts on that?
Joyce: Oh, certainly. We are blessed in the DC area with so many accredited non-profits, like A Wider Circle. They're in Silver Spring. What we love about A Wider Circle is that they actually give the things that you donate to people who have been homeless and now have a home. We like to give to A Wider Circle. We go to the Salvation Army, Purple Heart. There's ...
Eric: Goodwill.
Joyce: ... Goodwill, Life4Animals. We donate a lot to Life4Animals. Whatever they sell goes towards the humane society. There are a lot of great, great places. You can go to our website and we can give you other ideas as well.
Eric: Your website is what?
Joyce: Tadrelocation.com. That's www.tadrelocation.com.
Eric: Whether you need a move manager or you know someone, perhaps mom and dad, or maybe even one of your kids who's buying a house and you want to get rid of some of the stuff out of your house and get it to them, give Joyce a call. Make sure you mention that you heard about TAD here on the Eric Stewart Show. Thanks, Joyce.
Joyce: You're so welcome.
Eric: Absolutely a pleasure. In real estate, the agent is, kind of like Joyce was saying, the wedding mover of the real estate sale; whereas the move manager is the wedding planner for the overall move. Putting the two together, a move manager and a good agent, is a tremendous blessing and benefit to you as a seller.
For more information on TAD Relocation and our other preferred vendors, download our FREE Preferred Local Vendor Guide. For additional tips and strategies on downsizing, check out our FREE Rightsizing Guide.
For more information on buying and selling and everything in between, listen to The Eric Stewart Show every Sunday from 7am – 8am on WMAL AM 630 or 105.9 FM. If you miss a show, don’t fret! You can access the archived shows here.
