Author Topic: House Movers  (Read 2515 times)

joenorm

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House Movers
« on: December 09, 2018, 07:24:23 PM »
Has anyone ever purchased a house from a house relocating company?

In my area you can buy pretty decent houses for around $60-70K, including trucking/moving cost. They plop the house onto your property, you then build a foundation under it, bring utilities in, they come back and drop it on the foundation, and your'e done. Of course there is probably minimal rehab to be done as well.

There are a lot of dumps available, but occasionally some little gems.

Numbers make it seems like they could work out as rentals.


waltworks

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2018, 07:31:38 PM »
Uh, you can move a house? That isn't a manufactured/mobile home? For cheap?

I mean, maybe you know more than me about this. But sticks and drywall don't take so well to being picked up off their foundation usually. And most houses are going to have to get cut into multiple pieces to go on a truck.

-W

joenorm

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2018, 07:56:31 PM »
I'ts actually pretty common. You see it in areas where it is more cost effective to move a house than to demolish it.

And it's not as if the houses are horrible by any means, it's just that they happen to be sitting in what are now very high dollar areas, where people want to build something much fancier.

The house holds up fine, the companies that do it are very good. They''ll even barge them if necessary.

It is a cool idea to give a house a new chance at life instead of putting it in a landfill

Mississippi Mudstache

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2018, 08:26:06 AM »
Moving houses is definitely a thing, but I can offer no insight as to the financial aspects. I occasionally see advertisements for people trying to get rid of houses for free, but the taker has to pay the moving costs. Those ones are usually in sad shape and need a lot of rehab.

clarkfan1979

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2018, 04:41:00 PM »
Moving houses is definitely a thing, but I can offer no insight as to the financial aspects. I occasionally see advertisements for people trying to get rid of houses for free, but the taker has to pay the moving costs. Those ones are usually in sad shape and need a lot of rehab.

Because the owners will have to pay to demolish it, you should be able to get those houses for free. Maybe some people do pay for them. However, I would hold out for a "fixer" that you get for free. I would pay 20K for the house movers to move it for you.

SunnyDays

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2020, 10:21:07 AM »
I see houses being moved from time to time, because they block the whole highway.  Not all are RTMs.  Someone in town did this because the block was bought out by a local company and they liked their house, so moved it a few streets away.  I don't know the cost, but obviously you have to buy the lot, pay for the move, the new foundation, connect all the utilities and fix any damage incurred during the move.  Not to mention the hassle.  So unless there's some compelling reason to do it, I wouldn't.








Fishindude

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2020, 10:39:36 AM »
I sold a house on a piece of property we bought and the buyer had it moved.   Have also moved a couple houses and buildings in my construction business over the years.
Unless you are a highly skilled do it yourselfer, with access to all necessary tools and time to work on things, you are going to be hard pressed to move a home and come out ahead of what it would cost to build something, or buy something existing.   Even if it's in pretty good shape there will be significant expense in; utility disconnect, jacking, loading moving and permits, jacking, unloading, a new foundation, new utilities, patching the house back together if split, etc.

AMandM

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2020, 06:17:46 AM »
I have relatives who have moved six buildings onto land they own. The buildings cost $1 each because they would otherwise have been torn down, so moving them saved the seller the demolition costs. (I think there was some legal reason why they had to be sold rather than given away, hence the $1.) Some of them became rentals, one became my cousin's house.

IIRC the new foundation had to be in place before the building was moved. Moving costs varied, depending on the size of the building and the distance; one was very expensive because some power lines had to be loosened along the way. One house was moved in two pieces.

I don't know enough details to know whether moving was cheaper than a new build, but the buildings were lovely old ones, so I suspect moving was cheaper than building *those* structures from scratch. For instance, my cousin ended up with a beautiful big Victorian, but with all up-to-date mechanicals.

calimom

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2020, 11:12:11 AM »
An interesting article with pictures. Horses moving houses!


https://www.messynessychic.com/2018/09/28/the-towns-that-were-moved-by-horses/

iris lily

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2020, 11:22:05 AM »
My sister in law got a free house, a smallish ranch house, 1000 sq feet, and moved it onto a new foundation. The foundation was above ground so it gave them a walkout basement., DH says it probably was not much cheaper than building new.

But I can see the utility of this for old houses with high ceilings and nice mill work and and flooring. That costs a LOT to reproduce.

joenorm

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Re: House Movers
« Reply #10 on: January 28, 2020, 08:17:53 AM »


There are some cool videos on the website, pretty amazing stuff

https://www.nickelbros.com