How bad is it on houses when they are moved?

Question

Looking to buy house and just recently found out it was not built on the location and was purchased and moved to the current location, i have heard this is bad on the houses... whats your opinions?

Answer 1

There are a couple of different ways of looking at it.  First, if it survived  the move it must be a pretty good structure.  Second, it has been through house h**l.  It stands to reason that if you move something that is not built or intended to be moved there will be issues.  Think of all the fasteners that will have been stressed and loosened.  Nails, screws etc are made to go in and stay.  When you move them they will never be as tight as they once were. Will the wall and floors be plumb and square?   I am by no means an expert on this subject but I would certainly hire a hot running building inspector to go over the structure with a fine toothed comb.  You don't want to find problems a few years down the road.  I wouldn't hesitate to buy a building that had been moved but I would pay attention.  Maybe the most important thing is to read the contract.  Who is going to fix problems a couple of years down the road?   Just some thoughts.  Good luck.

Answer 2

It can be a problem in two ways. As renpen so rightly says, a house will never be quite what it was once it's moved. Not only can everything shift out of plumb, but often (at least where I live) houses about to be moved are often targeted by thieves that break in the last night and steal everything they can pry off or unscrew - vintage trim, crystal doorknobs, brass cupboard door handles and hinges, and the like. The company that moved it and sells it then has to go through and replace everything that was stolen, and usually they do it using the cheapest replacements they can find. These cheap replacements might look nice but they'll never last as well as the originals would have.

Another problem is that (again, at least where I live) the overwhelming majority of houses that are moved are post-war small ranch-style starter homes. They weren't built well to start off with; in the one I owned, there wasn't a plumb wall or a 90 degree angle to start off with, and everything was just a little off otherwise - the shower was in crooked, the tub wasn't put in straight, the ceiling lamps weren't centered, the floors banked at wild angles, etc. They require a lot of repairs because they're 60 years old and, since nothing in them is standard, the cost to replace anything can be higher than you expect. In my old house the doors were all either 26 or 29 inches wide - furniture these days is built based on the idea that everyone has a door at least 30 inches wide.