House Demolition: Is It Worth It?

[Iron Chef]

My next door neighbors house burned down due to a natural disaster (lightning strike). They would up tearing everything down, ripped up the slab and started from scratch.

It got me thinking: If you like your lot and neighborhood, but are only so-so about your house, is it worth it/cost effective to tear down and rebuild as opposed to building new? My home is 6 years old, and I'm seeing all these things I'd do differently.

Opinions?

[LATB]

Btdt

[JRD77VET]

Originally Posted by Iron Chef

My next door neighbors house burned down due to a natural disaster (lightning strike). They would up tearing everything down, ripped up the slab and started from scratch.

It got me thinking: If you like your lot and neighborhood, but are only so-so about your house, is it worth it/cost effective to tear down and rebuild as opposed to building new? My home is 6 years old, and I'm seeing all these things I'd do differently.

Opinions?

BR1 did in your house?

[beadist]

I liked the layout. Do you want more house or just more garage space...

[Defib1961]

Originally Posted by beadist

I liked the layout. Do you want more house or just more garage space...

You have more than enough room to build an Auto Museum, no need to tear down the house and you already have half of the known cars.

[ConstantChange]

Originally Posted by Iron Chef

Is it worth it/cost effective to tear down and rebuild as opposed to building new?

Cons
Cost of demolition
Dumpster fees
Rental apt/house cost while rebuilding

Pros
Already have line to sewer or septic tank
Already have main power run
Already have driveway if you use same location
Could probably salvage some windows, vanities, sinks, lighting, doors, etc...


Good question...

[Millenium Vette]

The only way a tear-down makes sense financially is if the lot is worth the same with or without the house that is on it. Waterfront property is one situation where it often makes sense. Sometimes the lot will sell for more with no house on it than it will with a "tear-down" house on it.

[FRISKY]

I have considered this very thing quite a bit...until my neighbor bought the lot next door and built a $1.4 million dollar house that they couldn't pay for (business went bankrupt)...and ended up selling for $600k.

Too many good deals out there. You can buy cheaper than build.

[LATB]

Originally Posted by ConstantChange

Cons
Cost of demolition
Dumpster fees
Rental apt/house cost while rebuilding

Pros
Already have line to sewer or septic tank
Already have main power run
Already have driveway if you use same location
Could probably salvage some windows, vanities, sinks, lighting, doors, etc...


Good question...

home demo costs are not all that bad. actually it's less than clearing a wooded lot for construction

there are no dumpster fees

living expenses are to be considered in any build/move scenario

you still will need to pay a plumber/utility contractor to hook up your water & sewer...and there may be additional impact fees to be paid to the utility company

the driveway will be trashed

you will not want to save the old building materials...best thing to do here, is have a demo sale prior to the machinery arriving. you would be amazed at the folks that want your old water heater or windows...let them have 'em...you'll want new in the new place...and so will your builder.

[ConstantChange]

Originally Posted by LarsAtTheBeach

home demo costs are not all that bad. actually it's less than clearing a wooded lot for construction

there are no dumpster fees

living expenses are to be considered in any build/move scenario

you still will need to pay a plumber/utility contractor to hook up your water & sewer...and there may be additional impact fees to be paid to the utility company

the driveway will be trashed

you will not want to save the old building materials...best thing to do here, is have a demo sale prior to the machinery arriving. you would be amazed at the folks that want your old water heater or windows...let them have 'em...you'll want new in the new place...and so will your builder.

Honestly, I posted my "I don't have a clue what I'm talking about" list hoping you would come along and give some real answers.

[oahuyahoo]

There must be an insurance claim in here somewhere. Getting rid of the burn smell from a house is next to impossible. If they used pvc plumbing, many times this stuff can melt under the slab and you would never know it until your toilet didn't flush thus the reason for removing the slab. The insurance company has steered your neighbor in the right direction. Now in your case can't a remodel satisfy your want to change?

Originally Posted by Iron Chef

My next door neighbors house burned down due to a natural disaster (lightning strike). They would up tearing everything down, ripped up the slab and started from scratch.

It got me thinking: If you like your lot and neighborhood, but are only so-so about your house, is it worth it/cost effective to tear down and rebuild as opposed to building new? My home is 6 years old, and I'm seeing all these things I'd do differently.

Opinions?

[Jbust3]

No not worth it ... you will always find a neighborhood you like ... Find a lot and build a home

[mrvette]

In Chevy Chase (there for a LONG time, before the car and the comedian) and Potomac Maryland, both are NW burbs of Wash Dc, there lives most of the power and influence types of the world and this nation....bunch of lawyers....

so much so that a curiosity exists that on Canal Rd and McArthur pkwy they get away with super high speeds to work and home....any cop ticket them and the cop is fired.....THAT's PULL......

at any rate, in those older close in burbs, it was very common to tear down a house to the point of leaving ONE wall standing, and rebuilding everything else, that way it was called a rehab....and so the hood of some very old friends had a McMansion 'rebuilt' on the corner, meanwhile they have redone their house into a bit of a mansion also, with this HUGE killer garage out back, lifts and lots of space, it's only a 1/4 acre hood....and a narrow uphill driveway....even my ex's hood in Potomac had 3 houses cleaned out the same way and they rebuilt McMansion style....huge house on 1/4 acre.....

Decades ago Potomac Md, had a Minimum 2 acre zoning law passed, even the old columnist Drew Pearson of Wash Post fame and fortune could not get around that when the family sub divided his famous Merry Go-Round Farm.....I worked on a couple of those houses on the Potomac Palisades view was phenomenal to say the least, overlook the tree tops, damn nearly see DC, 2 acre zoning though....

so as usual, it depends on the 3 issues affecting housing.....

Location
Location
Location

Oh, BTW, prices in 20854, 20853, and closer in have declined very little since 07.....

MeC5Lady lives out that way....

[CertInsaneC5]

When we had our lake cottage. The folks next door wanted to retire to the lake but their house was only a 3 season place.

The lots there are only ~60ft wide. So you cannot build a new structure on them. So they tore down everything except the front wall and main entryway. Built a 3000+ sq-ft place. All the permits were for a remodel. Legal as church on Sunday. They even went so far as to buy a lot across the road for their barn/garage. It was included in the remodel permits. Not sure how they pulled that one off.

This same scenario played out on many lots around the lake. As another poster mentioned, the land must be worth it to ever come out ahead in this deal. But the lots up there, 60 x 180 ft., were going for around 300k regardless of the structures on them. At Least when we sold ours that is.

That lake property was the single most lucrative investment I have ever made. Tripled my $$ in less than 5 years. If the market ever does start to come back I plan on doing the whole lake property thing again. I will probably do just what our neighbors back then did. But I will flip it and walk away smiling.

[VatorMan]

Originally Posted by LarsAtTheBeach

living expenses are to be considered in any build/move scenario

I sold my RV to a couple doing a whole house demo. Made a lot of sense as they used the RV to live during the demo/build and then sold it after. Basically lived at no cost and was able to watch everything at the house.

[Cybercowboy]

For a 40-year-old home? Sure. For a 6-year-old home? Are you nuts?

There will always be things you wish you did differently, and often it's the things you didn't really think much about that you end up really liking about your home. The things you just knew you had to do a certain way, well, five years later you will be second-guessing those anyway.

[Iron Chef]

Originally Posted by JRD77VET

BR1 did in your house?

To be honest, everyone at BR1 was very respectful of my home and my neighborhood. Everyone cleaned up after themselves and helped with the overall cleanup, and there were no problems with the neighbors at all.

Originally Posted by beadist

I liked the layout. Do you want more house or just more garage space...

I want more garage space and a different layout.

Originally Posted by oahuyahoo

There must be an insurance claim in here somewhere. Getting rid of the burn smell from a house is next to impossible. If they used pvc plumbing, many times this stuff can melt under the slab and you would never know it until your toilet didn't flush thus the reason for removing the slab. The insurance company has steered your neighbor in the right direction. Now in your case can't a remodel satisfy your want to change?

Maybe...I haven't looked into it that far yet. It was just the teardown and rebuilding that got me thinking.

Originally Posted by Cybercowboy

For a 40-year-old home? Sure. For a 6-year-old home? Are you nuts?

There will always be things you wish you did differently, and often it's the things you didn't really think much about that you end up really liking about your home. The things you just knew you had to do a certain way, well, five years later you will be second-guessing those anyway.

Well, I didn't build this house...it was a spec house built by a local contractor. And I didn't know much about what should and should not go into a home when I bought it.

[VITE1]

There are sections where I grew up on LI NY that people buy perfectly good homes and rip them down to the foundation then rebuild a house significantly bigger.

A few of the reason are that the land price was the major cost factor in the purchase, the house was very small. But the biggest reason was that the tax rates were based on the age of the foundation. So if you built a huge house on an old foundation your tax rates were much lower.

[mrvette]

Originally Posted by Iron Chef

Well, I didn't build this house...it was a spec house built by a local contractor. And I didn't know much about what should and should not go into a home when I bought it.

The garage is something we can't help with, but I been remodeling homes for some years....if you can get a sketch up and a outside pix...maybe a few changes can be done to improve things....

[Iron Chef]

The land value here is fairly consistent, so I doubt I'd be losing any money in that respect.

Additional garage space is a must, and would be a separate building.

Who knows...maybe a remodel would work. But I like thinking out loud and exploring the possibilities.