I have recently bought a 1112m2 block of land that has a nice home on it that me and the wife will be moving into shorty.
Our plans are to live in the house and cut the block into two as it is a corner lot and by council standards would be easy to do. We have access to some homes that could be relocated onto the block which we would do keeping both homes living in one and renting the other.
If anyone has any advise or knowledge on subdivision, relocating homes and anything relivent I would love to hear it.
Thanks
We were looking at doing this ourselves not so long ago. Once you have a house in mind contact a house relocator (listed under ‘House Relocation Services’ in the yellow pages). Like most things it is best if you can get word of mouth references as some of these relocators can do an excellent job but some, well… I’ve heard of relocated houses where windows and doors no longer open and close etc.
Some houses can be moved more easily than others, some will cost more than others, some can travel in one piece and some need to go in two or three (or more?) pieces. If you have several to choose from it might be an idea to get the relocator to have a look and get an educated opinion on which may be the best and/or cheapest to move.
Be prepared for some work once the house is in it’s new spot. When they move it any cement floors will have to be removed (as they very rarely travel well) and you will be left with a great big hole looking through to the ground underneath. In our case that was going to be the bathroom and laundry areas. Sometimes it is also necessary to completely rewire the house. Plus the obvious plumbing.
You will need to get council approval and (amongst other things) for us this also meant getting an owner builder’s licence.
I’m making it sound like a bit of a headache perhaps but we were really keen to do it. We would have done really well out of the deal.
Unfortunately, we were gazumped on the block of land and had a very tight time deadline to meet as we were getting the house for free from a developer who was otherwise going to have it demolished and cleared (us removing it saved them $$$). The new development had to start and we had nowhere to move the house so the deal was off. The developer found someone else to take the house using the relocator we had sourced (because he was familiar with the house and booked in to remove it at the right time). I cried when it happened but now it’s all over and we’re looking at something different…
Good luck with it – let us know how you go!
Regards
Sonjathough I haven’t got to that part yet I heard that there’s a bit about it in steve;s new book, shaune and rachel from the MAP did one
I can’t wait to read it. I too just bought vacant land and intend to do a mini-development on it this year or early next. it’s in a capital gains area and I am even looking into putting a two storey re-located block of flats on it! either that or a duplex or else two x 2 bedroom cottages would probably fit too. it’s amazing the properties you can get for relocation these days.
And so way cheaper and quicker than building. I have heard of people that got burned though. (i.e. spent too much on the process and didn’t make as much as they intended.)
joy to the world
We tried to get council approval first before organising a house and they hit us with the 100 year floodline cutting through where we wanted to have the house, so that was the end of that. Some councils are quite pedantic about what and where houses sit too so do your research first.
Good luck.
DD
Don’t sweat the small stuff,and it’s all small stuff!!
Got a 2nd hand copy of Steve’s new book if anyone’s interested in a cheap buy.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. If you don't have an account, you can register here.
