Aiming to bring together teardown buyer and teardown seller is Teardowns.com.
Sellers of teardowns may favor such a Web site because they want an uncomplicated sale. They're aware that the value of the property is in the land, not the house, and they don't want to have to go through a full service broker, with all that implies: open houses, print ads, showings - with 6 percent commissions. For buyers, it's another place to shop.
The company's staff drives around upscale neighborhoods in mostly older suburbs where they look for poorly maintained or smaller homes on good-sized lots. They contact owners though direct-mail solicitations.
Sometimes the mailings are not well received; people can get upset when their beloved family home is being eyed for a wrecker's ball. "Some people tell us to get lost," says Hickey.
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