What the model does well
- Ordering: which of two routes or home sizes will cost more, and by roughly how much.
- Budget framing for full-service interstate moves between 250 and 3,000 miles.
- Sensitivity: how much packing, peak season, or an extra bedroom actually adds.
What it approximates
- Distance. Derived from city-center coordinates plus a circuity factor, not from a routed highway network. Expect a few percent of error, more where terrain or water forces long detours.
- Shipment weight. Taken from home-size profiles. A sparsely furnished 4-bedroom house can weigh less than a dense 2-bedroom apartment.
- Market cost. Our labor index is an internal construct, reviewed periodically, not a published wage statistic.
Where you should not rely on it
- Moves to or from Alaska and Hawaii, which involve ocean or air freight we do not model.
- Local moves under about 180 miles, which are usually priced hourly rather than by weight.
- Corporate or military relocations governed by a tariff or contract rate.
- Shipments dominated by specialty contents: pianos, art collections, wine, laboratory or gym equipment.
- Moves requiring auto transport, which is a separate service with its own pricing.
How to close the gap
The single most effective step is a video or in-home survey, which replaces our assumed weight with a real inventory. Ask for a binding or not-to-exceed estimate rather than a non-binding one, and disclose stairs, elevator rules, and street access before the estimator quotes.
Corrections
If a page shows a figure that looks wrong, it is either a model error or a data error, and both are fixable. Our editorial policy describes how corrections are handled and how model versions are tracked.