Relocating home on to empty land - a giant PITA?

We're in regional QLD and looking for a PPOR. The properties up here are a bit crappy. Chucking money at it just moves you from crappy 3 bedder to crappy 4 bedder with a terrible pool.

We've been looking at buying an empty block and moving an older hardwood floor Queenslander on to it. I've read some blogs about it and it doesn't seem too terrible but then I've also seen problems when they cut a house in half and drive it around the place.

We're interested because we can buy something with character and then go from there.

So - anyone done it? Know anyone who did it? Worth it or just a gigantic pain?

 

sanj and I attempted this way back - relocating an older stump home to a regional subdivided lot.

house hunting, found a great house. sanj has the best pictures of it flying down the highway in two halves. remover was to strip all asbestos and re clad, deliver and restump.

lot finding, no prob. Got a good lot at a good price. trouble was they were a bunch of ***** and shafted us at every turn. Delays delays delays.

a quick 4 month process became 8 and counting. Remover got angry, we sold house with contract in place for remover and house went to a horse breeder.

made most of the money back I believe, but what a stuff around and missed opportunities elsewhere.

 

Some of the old 60s shoebox types are a single move. Some people will give the house away to clear the block. Maybe talk to some demolition crews. A lot of the expense is the loading and then unloading/stumping it would seem. Look to the largest nearby city for a suitable house- a few hundred kms may not add all that much to the move.

 

I think tim86 has done something like this

 

I did this a few years back in NSW, the biggest problem (as mentioned above) is finding a reliable quality house mover. The one I used was good, a lot dearer than others, but has retired now.

 

Done multiple times but not for years. Can get single shift Queenslanders. They start charging a km rate above 100km. It always worked great for me. After the move you have a renovator still but with a new roof, new wiring, new plumbing and new stumps.

Andrew Drake from affordable is great

 

Not here but in NZ many years ago I shifted a 100 yr old 1800 Sq ft house. Spent 8mths driving all over and every time I saw an old villa that was empty (They were all on farms) I would find out who owned and ask if they wanted to sell. Did most of the work myself preparing for the shift removing added on garages chimneys doors roof etc. Coded each sheet of iron so I knew where to put it back lol. Stripped the house to the top plate and the joists,lots of fun. Got the removal guys to do the final cut in half and load onto the 2 trucks and then we carted it 90 km to our site. Unfortunately the night we shifted it we got 100 mls of rain all the wallpaper peeled off and stuffed all the carpets .So challenging my wife and I had to take our gumboots off to get into bed, spent the next year after work each night and weekends restoring to it,s former glory. Well worth it financially and it was beautiful when I finished it. I did all the work myself, rewired re plumbed the whole 9 yards. Because of it's age I had to get some of the timber milled to imperial sizes to match existing. Well worth the effort though.Main thing is to get a really good removalist, the rest is just basic trades.
It was really satisfying and we had such a lovely home for relatively few dollars in fact it cost less to buy the house (not including the cost of removal) than it cost to build a new double garage 2 years later!

 

Thanks for all the replies everyone. It seems finding a reputable mover is one of the main issues.

We love some of these older houses - you just can't build them like that (not without ridiculous cost)!

 

we used Nathan McLennan of McLennan Transportables down Armadale way..... recommended!