houstonray Posted October 9, 2006 Share Posted October 9, 2006 Hey everyone;Had a question I've been wondering. We're thinking of buying some land in the country in the next year or two for a weekend place and eventually a retirement place and came up with what we thought was a great idea. Instead of building a new house on there, we wondered about houses that were scheduled to be demolished?If a developer buys a lot with a bungalow on it that he's going to tear down anyway, would it be worth it to tell them we'll take the house (or buy it for some nominal amount) and we'd pay to have it moved? It seems to me if it's going to be torn down anyway, it shouldn't matter to them one way or the other. I'm not sure if they get money for what they salvage from it but if they did, it couldn't be that much and perhaps we could offer the same amt to buy it and if we moved it, they'd save the expense of having to pay for the demolition and haul off all the debris. Plus I've seen several houses just completely torn down without anyone getting a chance for salvage. We just thought that if we could save an old house that way from the wrecking ball, rather than just pieces of it, we could give it new life elsewhere. Thoughts?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncertaintraveler Posted October 9, 2006 Share Posted October 9, 2006 Moving a house can be an EXTREMELY expensive proposition. That is why you sometimes see a house for sale for $1, with the "catch" being that you have to pay to move it. Additionally, since it costs so much to move a house, you better be sure that the house you plan to move is worth the expense in doing so (as in, the house is actually worth keeping). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunsets Posted October 9, 2006 Share Posted October 9, 2006 The Chron recently ran an article about a guy trying to give away his renovated 4 bedroom brick bungalow on Fairview st. in Montrose. He wants to put a new modern house on the same lot, and it would cost him 25K to demolish the old house.Estimates for moving the bungalow were approx. 30-40K. Then you have to put the roof back on and line everything up again.But it looks like a really nice house for that price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1fd Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 I expect its probably a whole lot more expenisve to move a brick house than one with plain 'ol wood siding. Finding and moving a house is certainly doable, and is even worthwhile if the house is in pretty good shape. The killer is transport distance. An ex boss looked into having a house moved out to his deer lease...he was going to have to pull a permit and do all sorts of other specal crap for every county it was going to go through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwrm4 Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 I always thought it would be cool to combine a couple shotgun/row houses into one house on some land out in the country. I think Historic Houston or one of those groups have about 20 of them on beams somewhere outside of Houston. Those type homes look narrow enough to move like mobile homes, letting you create your own Depression-era double-wide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstonray Posted October 10, 2006 Author Share Posted October 10, 2006 Hmmm, I asked because a friend of mine bought a couple of small frame houses back in about 1995 or so over on the East side and had them moved out to some property in Brookshire. Back then, it cost her about $4500 each to have them moved. That included setting them up on piers when they got to where they were going. These were smallish, about 1000 sq feet each. She did the rehab thing on both and sold one for a nice a profit and had the other one moved a SECOND time to another piece of land where her daughter lives and now lives in that one. They both made for great little homes with some history (and saved them from the wrecking ball). I was thinking a small frame house would be less than 10k to move but maybe I'm wrong and that's so 'last century'. haha. BTW, love the idea of a couple of shotguns combined. Depression era doublewide...I LOVE IT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heights_yankee Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 Call Bungalow Revival. I think most of the houses they restored over on 14th they also moved there. They might be able to give you a good estimate and even refer someone good to do the move for you. I think it's a great idea, BTW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rps324 Posted October 11, 2006 Share Posted October 11, 2006 Historic Houston helps with moving historic homes. They usually have some for sale like This one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aggie92 Posted October 11, 2006 Share Posted October 11, 2006 Go with the Historic Houston or look for the ads in the Chronicle or check with some of the larger builders (Allegro, Tricon, or Premier Victorian) who buy up properties early by working with realtors that know when properties are coming available.We just went thru this experience. Bought a house in the Heights and did not want to destroy a perfectly good structure but wanted to build a new home on the property. The house needed alot of work and was livable but was in poor condition and only 1000 sq ft. It was a brick house on pier and beam and had an old tile roof that needed replacement.Finally found an individual that wanted it and we let them contract with the house movers to get the house from the Heights to Tomball. It cost them just over $20,000 to remove the brick, remove the asbestos roof, transport the house, and set it up on blocks at the new location. They then had to put on a new roof, hardi-plank it and then update the house so it does cost considerably more than just the house move.My recommendation is to find you an individual thru one of the methods above and then contract the house mover to just move and set up the house (they are all the same because they are either related already, have been related, or worked for one another) verses buying from one of them. The house movers won't pay money for a house, so they want to sell you a house that they got for $1. By the way, we could have demolished the house for $4,000 after salvage so yes the demo companies do make some money by salvaging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gordman Posted October 10, 2007 Share Posted October 10, 2007 Well, yes moving a house can be extremely expensive but also building a new one is expensive. I would go for moving your house, you get to keep all your familiar things intact and look at the bright side, you won't need a moving company to help you . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott08 Posted October 12, 2007 Share Posted October 12, 2007 I'm in North Norhill. The house next door to me burned down in 2005 and the lot was cleared. About 3 months ago, a flipper moved a house set for demolition in the Woodland Heights area. Said it cost $10K to move it approximately 1 1/2 miles down Studewood, I'm guessing he got the house for free or a token amount. Spent the last couple of months fixing it up and it's been on the market now for a week. I would think taking one out to the country would be exponentially higher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jm1fd Posted October 13, 2007 Share Posted October 13, 2007 I'm in North Norhill. The house next door to me burned down in 2005 and the lot was cleared. About 3 months ago, a flipper moved a house set for demolition in the Woodland Heights area. Said it cost $10K to move it approximately 1 1/2 miles down Studewood, I'm guessing he got the house for free or a token amount. Spent the last couple of months fixing it up and it's been on the market now for a week. I would think taking one out to the country would be exponentially higher.Yeah....a former coworker looked into having a little house moved out to his ranch several counties west of here. Cost was absurd. He said they were going to have to get permits/clearance in every county it was going to be transported through. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanith27 Posted October 15, 2007 Share Posted October 15, 2007 I remember seeing this on one of those PBS type shows a while back. They moved the structure from one state to another and that cost them about 60K. Which is a viable option since you can find some old historical homes in small towns that are a fraction of what they cost in the big city or as a rebuild.For example, even adding 60K to the price of this home to move it, could still end up being a good dealhttp://www.historicproperties.com/detail.a...il_key=scyor002 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harmonsmith Posted November 26, 2008 Share Posted November 26, 2008 Nice thought. I Moved my house . The building was of 1946 construction and remains 55 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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