We too, took a perfectly good house that we already owned (it was straddling two blocks we wanted to build on), cut it in half and moved it to another block in the next suburb.
The land bought especially for the purpose settled in 4/02 and we have just rented the house out last month 3/05!
The house was put on the block in the wrong orientation and once both halves were there, there wasn’t enough room to turn them. (the guy didn’t bother checking the plan and too much time had elapsed from when we signed the contract to when he actually did the job he had forgotten our instructions)
The house remover/stumper must have thought it was all too hard because it took legal action to get him to finish the job (we turned the house 90deg in the process and added a gable and decks right along the front – all to avoid a big tree on the front of the block which the council said was protected, then subsequently turned out to be full of borers and cost us another $800 to remove! on top of the additional cost of decks and gable to accommodate the requirements)
To cut a long, long story short, the house cost us the same as building very high quality replicas and took more than three times as long and a huge number of headaches/grey hairs we didn’t need.
Would we do it again? We are already talking about our next one, but with the experience of hindsight we don’t intend to make the same mistakes twice!
Our experience: Double your estimates of cost, and triple your time estimates to come up with a realistic figure.
Good luck!Hi there
SOOO interesting to hear the real life stories. Yes Hans says as much in his book, (the nightmares re: bonds, cracks, and the ENORMOUS carnage even if the house was brilliant at the old site but it looks like a wreck at the new site.) Also a lot of cool things have to actually be dismantled and re-built at the new site, so if part of your colonial that you like is tiled fireplace, brick features, leadlight windows, that it has decent carpets, whatever – all of that actually has to be removed or else it won’t survive the trip. and like redhaven in the Hans book, he started with a colonial home which was like you to get a better home than they could afford to buy.
So anyway I was looking into relocations as a possibility of creating a CF+ve rental property where you couldn’t BUY one any more. However the grief and time factor just seemed not worth it, especially compared with the cost and ease of building new.
however if I did do it, I would look at the ‘new’ relocatables, or anything that had the dimensions that would suit a ‘one piece move’ without having to take the roof off.
This is all outlined in hans’ book. Basically it means that the smaller and more box-like the house (i,e, unappealing!) the better it’s going to suit relocating. The fancier and more pretty the house, the more work it’s going to need at the other end re: sorting
and don’t forget you have to deal with the old site too and cap drains etc –
If you are thinking of doing it in Aus I would suggest try to get in touch with Shaune and Rachel the mappers, who have done several of these and have a few on the go now too.
They might be available on a consultant basis, worth a shot
This is a common strategy in Brisbane as there a lot of old Queenslanders in Brisbane’s inner suburbs. In order to comply withe the council requirements you are compelled to build homes in sympathy with the character of the street.
Relocating homes is one way of achieving this.
However, before doing this you have to conduct proper feasibility before embarking on such a project.
In the current economic climate it actually cheaper to build a new home as opposed to relocating. This is because the cost of relocating and building is a lot higher. This is because with renovations you need specilist carpenters who custom the renovation as opposed to a new home which is put together on a modular form and put together. The cost of labour here is a lot cheaper due to its simplicity.
Renovations also require matching old materials which can be more expensive.
Therefore, if you are planning on making money out of this exersice make shure you do your homework first. However, if you plan on using it as your PPOR then you cant go past the charm and character of an older home restored to its former glory.
http://www.developersedge.com.au
130073 5934
thanks for recommernding Hans book mini, i have spent the past week or so studying it. There are a lot of good and bad aspects that i can see in relocating. To be honest i am now more inclined to look further into spec homes.
I appreciate everyones responses i really appreciate how much you can learn on this forum.Billyt
Having checked out numerous secondhand transportables for a Queensland Regional town block of land, I came to the conclusion it was too costly to pay for the renovations to be completed after the home was sited on the block so I looked at new transportables and selected one from Olympiad Homes who are at Forest Glen on the Sunshine Coast.
This home came with Verandahs, carport, floor coverings, window treatments, light fittings, ceiling fans, insulation, bathroom and toilet accessories.
I only had to organise local tradesmen to connect water, sewer, electricity, have a concrete drive and paths put down, air conditioning and a letterbox and clothesline added and it was ready for a tenant, showing a return of 11%, not to mention depreciation.
Being new, no maintenance for some time!
After you have done your numbers on a secondhand transportable compare the costs with a new one. You may come to the same conclusion as I did.
Cheers.
Barry M.
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