Movable Feats : While it takes some planning and effort, buying a 'move-on' is a viable route to home ownership for some.

By EVELYN De WOLFE

Feb. 18, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A place to call her own. That was Rose Escobar’s dream.

She wasn’t looking for anything fancy--just a nice little house for herself and her two children, with a yard for her grandson to play in.

The dream of home ownership is shared passionately by many, but Escobar, 44, a single working mother with a modest income, got her own piece of that dream in an unusual way. For $5,500, Escobar bought a house that was being moved to make way for a hospital parking lot in Anaheim and had it relocated to a family-owned lot a few miles away.

Although Escobar had a few problems, and cautions that her approach to home ownership may not be for everyone, she’s happy with the outcome because it meant that she and her family were able to greet the New Year in their own, newly renovated home.

The Garden Grove hairdresser’s original plan had been to borrow just enough to add to her savings and to either buy or build a suitable home.

She began by making the rounds to local banks and other lenders. The answer was always the same: Escobar had little chance of qualifying for a conventional home loan.

“I had just about given up,” she recalled, “when my sister, who works near Snow House Movers in Santa Ana, came up with the idea of moving a house to the lot where we had lived as children and which my father was willing to share with me.”

“I . . . learned (Snow Movers) had just purchased five houses from Anaheim Memorial Hospital . . . and that they were immediately available. I bought the best one,” she said.

Escobar’s 1,400-square-foot “move-on” (an industry term for structures on the move) was built 30 years ago. It has three bedrooms and a den.

Escobar paid Snow $15,000 to move the house 10 miles from the hospital property to the family lot.

The total cost for buying, moving and renovating the house came to $69,000, which Escobar paid from a short-term construction loan she obtained by using the lot as collateral.

She expects to be able repay the loan soon by refinancing the property, which also includes an existing structure, and is now valued in excess of $200,000.

Moving a house may not be for everyone, Escobar admits, least of all a “novice” like herself.

The move-on process is much more complicated than buying a house, and includes obtaining permits, bonds and certificate of occupancy, and dealing with lenders, movers, insurance underwriters, contractors and inspectors. And that’s after buying the lot.

“You really have to know what you’re getting into,” Escobar said.

Statistics in the resurging move-on business--which peaked in the 1950s and ‘60s when new freeways were being built and declined in recent years--are hard to isolate because they are lumped in with other city relocation records.

But one Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety official estimated that about six to eight single-family or multiple residential buildings are moved each week in the greater Los Angeles area.

John Cawley, an insurance underwriter whose firm has issued relocation completion (or performance) bonds for 40 years, offered a broader view.

“Based on our business dealings with house movers and brokers throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties, I would say a minimum of 100 units are moved each month in both counties.”

He also said that more and more dwellings are being moved in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where unimproved land is more affordable.

“That is the key, of course,” Cawley said. “You have to have to own the land first.”

A move-on house can be bought, moved and renovated in the Southland for about $34 a square foot, while new construction usually starts at about $70 a square foot for comparable value in materials and styling, said Arnie Corlin, a move-on broker.

Corlin, who prefers to be called a “facilitator,” has assisted with the moving of more than 100 structures in the past four years. He keeps close tabs on available stock and dwellings that may become available in the near future.

He keeps a file filled with color photos of available properties to help his clients choose from among several hundred single- or multifamily units.

“People are surprised at the range of good homes and apartment buildings that are available,” Corlin said. “Good two or three bedroom homes can be had, delivered to the lot, for between $18,000 to $28,000. Apartments are going for about $11,000 to $14,000 per unit delivered.”

The cost of a lot in a good location is probably the biggest expense in a move-on budget. The next major cost is the rehab of the structure, which involves pouring a new foundation and “sewing up” any cuts required to move it, and general renovation. Rehab costs will vary according to how much new wiring and plumbing is done and whether there are changes or additions to the original floor plan.

One can estimate that the average 1,500-square-foot house costs about $13 a square foot to buy and to move, and an additional $20 a square foot to rehab it, said Rod Daniels, who has moved about 50 houses in the San Fernando Valley. “And that would include permit costs, landscaping and even carpets and drapes,” he said.

Jim Dunham, a realtor whose interest in preservation real estate led him into moving buildings and showing others how to do it, believes “move-ons are a viable housing resource for people who have little money and plenty of gumption.”

In his all-day “House Relocator” seminars, held periodically in Los Angeles, Dunham cautions that house moving is not without risks.

“I think people should know that there’s a lot more to it than an opportunity to own a beautiful building for a (minimal) price,” he maintains. “But as an investment it’s a sleeper. If done right, there can be some real benefits.”

Proper planning is crucial, Dunham said.

In figuring the feasibility of a project, Dunham stressed that it is “essential to do one’s homework and to know the resources that can help expedite the job.”

Doing one’s homework, he said, means knowing ordinances for move-ons in a given neighborhood, checking the compatibility of building to site before any purchase commitment is made and understanding the economics involved.

His students learn that there are many variables that affect the percentages relating to land, building and rehab costs, and miscellaneous expenditures in the move-on budget, which can include sanitary facilities, power poles, construction fences and on-site sheds.

But as an example, he said, total costs for a 1,500-square-foot move-on with a final appraisal value of $200,000 would typically be about 75%.

Ethiopian-born Dr. Selam Aklilu, a 30-year-old chiropractor and newcomer to this country, lives in a charming vintage home in Los Angeles that was moved from Caltech property in Pasadena.

Her total expenditure for the lot and renovation of the three-bedroom move-on was $130,000. A current appraisal sets the property value at $270,000.

Aklilu’s opportunity for home ownership came from a classified ad placed by Caltech in The Times announcing the university’s intention to give away several houses on its property to qualified applicants.

“For us, this ‘land of opportunity’ is not a myth,” Aklilu said. “We were one of four lucky applicants chosen to receive the free houses.”

When she first arrived here as a student 10 years ago, Aklilu’s goals were to become a doctor of chiropractic and to own a home.

“I read everything I could about real estate, scanned every home-for-sale ad in the classified section, saved every penny toward buying real estate,” Aklilu said. “Eventually, my husband and I were able to put a down payment on a $55,000 lot.”

After Aklilu was given the house by Caltech, family members joined together to loan her and her husband $80,000 to pay house moving and extensive remodeling costs, Aklilu said.

Unlike Rose Escobar, Aklilu bypassed some of the frustrations of house moving by hiring facilitator Corlin, who obtained the required permits and generally guided the couple through the process.

Those who own a lot but do not have the advantage of financial backing or a top credit rating may still be candidates for the move-on option, said Lynda Viera, senior loan officer at Community Thrift & Loan in Monterey Park, one of a few lenders handling such loans.

“There are not too many direct lenders that are FDIC-insured who are willing to take on these house-moving projects. But for those of us who do, it is primarily the project that qualifies rather than the applicant,” Viera said.

“Each project is evaluated independently on loan to value and on the credibility of the borrower, of course, but that does not exclude loans to people with a less-than-prime credit rating,” she added.

Move-on loans are much like conventional construction loans, and usually take three to four weeks to process, underwrite and fund. They do not record until a building is physically positioned on the site.

Financing is based on 65% of the value of the property at completion, and funds are disbursed through an in-house funding control voucher system, Viera said.

Randall T. Adams, an owner of Westworld Financial, a Woodland Hills construction lender that pioneered the mechanics of move-on financing, said a move-on loan by Westworld would be considered from the standpoint of location, equity, income and credit worthiness.

“While most financing offered for move-on projects is limited to a nine-month loan, (we write) loans for a one-year term, allowing the borrower sufficient time to both complete the project and arrange permanent financing,” Adams explained.

For veteran hands-on investor Daniels, moving buildings is both “challenging and exciting.” Daniels is in the process of relocating the historic McKinley Mansion from Lafayette Park Place in Los Angeles to Monteria Estates in Chatsworth, where Daniels and his wife, Sherry, plan to live with their children and grandchildren.

The token purchase price for the mansion was $1, Daniels said. He also paid a $15,000 finder’s fee to a broker. “This saved the developer about $75,000 in demolition and dump costs,” Daniels said.

“You can teach anyone how to recycle a house, but you can’t teach everyone how to build one,” Daniels commented. “Moving a house is 10 times easier and faster.”

Actor/developer James P. McNichol, a newcomer to the move-on world, is excited about his house-moving projects.

He recently acquired two units that were part of an apartment complex earmarked for demolition and had them moved to a lot in North Hollywood.

“The units have been joined together and turned into one spacious home, which I now occupy,” McNichol said. “It’s really fascinating to work with these kinds of options.”

In a second project, with Corlin and other friends, McNichol recently moved a 6,200-square-foot luxury Westside duplex to Brentwood. The units have since been reassembled and refurbished.

“The structure has 9-foot ceilings and beautiful architectural details,” he said. “When we get done with the renovation, the property will be comparable to the best in Brentwood.”

HOUSE MOVING SOURCES The following list of sources has been recommended by persons who are active in the house moving industry.

House Movers

Master House Movers, P.O. Box 18883, Encino, 91416, (818) 888-3355.

Chester Seay, 8664 Rheem Ave., South Gate, (213) 564-7777.

Snow House Movers, 11611 Westminster Ave. Garden Grove, (714) 534-1696.

Younger Brothers House Moving, 3770 Placentia Lane, Riverside, (714) 684-7261.

Younger & Son, 7373 4th St., Buena Park, (714) 739-5726.

Valley House Movers, 12071 Branford, Sun Valley, (818) 899-1865.

Bell House Movers, 19130 S. Figueroa St., Carson, (213) 321-2474

Bonding Agents

IRM Insurance, 970 N. Tustin Ave., Anaheim, (714) 777-2211.

John Cawley Insurance, 3250 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, (213) 385-4744