March 27, 2008

Fed Up With Prices In the Bay Area? How About a Free House?

Yes really. A house for free. There’s no catch. Well not really. These houses genuinely do come for free — just so long as you can move them out of their current location.

The properties in question are in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood — there are two Victorian cottages at 5244 and 5248 Telegraph Avenue (pictured above) as well as more units on Telegraph at 4744-4750 and 4760-4770 (pictured below left) and a third duplex on 48th Street (below right)

The reason these properties, which currently house 11 residential units, need to be moved is that there are plans afoot to build condos and co-housing community on the sites they occupy.

Large banners outside these homes proclaim: “THIS HOUSE IS FREE”. A website explains how it works. It addresses some of the issues involved in tackling a house relocation, including hiring experts, snagging permits and, perhaps most crucially, what it will cost.

As well as the fee for physically moving the building, expenditure might include installing a new foundation under the relocated building, connecting all new services to the building such as water, electricity, gas and sewer, as well as architectural, engineering and project management services and permits from the city. They estimate these could amount to $175,000.

Then you have to find land on which to put your rescued home — price being dependent on which part of the nation you choose.

So, even though the end result is not going to be a home on which you have spent absolutely zilch, and we all know there’s no such thing as a free lunch, it’s fair to say that in this case there really is such a thing as a free house.