Pricing an apartment, condo, or downtown high-rise move
A move out of a multi-unit building follows its own logic, and across this city those buildings break neatly into two camps that price out worlds apart. Camp one is the walk-up: a unit perched two or three floors up in a Logan Square, Avondale, or Pilsen three-flat, where every dollar traces straight to the stairs, the tight back-porch turns, and the long walk to a truck stuck down a permit-only block. Camp two is the elevator tower: a River North or Streeterville address where the cost springs from red tape instead, the insurance certificate management insists on, the elevator block you are made to reserve, and a move-in time the building polices to the minute. We take an honest measure of either kind and fold it all into a single written figure.
| Type of unit | Movers and vehicle | Flat rate you can expect | Notes on access |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio walk-up (2nd-3rd floor) | 2 movers, 1 truck | $500 – $850 | Tight three-flat stairs, city permit reserved |
| 1-bedroom condo with elevator | 2 movers, 1 truck | $650 – $1,100 | Freight-elevator window reserved |
| 2-bedroom three-flat floor | 2 – 3 movers, 1 truck | $1,050 – $1,800 | Three flights, long carry to a permit street |
| 2-3 bed downtown high-rise | 3 movers, 1 truck | $1,500 – $2,800 | COI filed, elevator slot and dock window booked |
The elevator does not save you what you would think
The usual hunch is that an elevator unit has to come in under a walk-up, since no one is wrestling a couch up the stairs. Once in a while it does, yet the building’s own rulebook generally devours the difference. River North and Streeterville towers, along with a good many of the South Loop and West Loop loft conversions, are going to want:
- An insurance certificate sitting with the management office ahead of time, which falls to us so the front desk never turns the crew away.
- A booked elevator block, usually two or three hours across. Run past it and you sit idle, or the whole move gets rescheduled.
- An assigned dock or service door, frequently bound to a move-in time the building enforces without budging.
Keeping the figure honest
On walk-ups we bill the real work the staircase calls for in place of stamping on a flat fee for each flight. On towers the certificate and the elevator block already live inside the number. Either way around, once the building is known you walk away with a written figure you can lean on. Our own W-2 movers run the job, never temp labor, and our coverage talk holds to fact: federal law pins basic released-value protection at $0.60 per pound, and full-value protection comes to about 1 to 3 percent of declared value if you go for it. Hand over the building plus the floor and a real price gets put down for you.