Moving to a new house

New owners will probably have little to no interest in wood heat as their primary heat source. Leave no more than a cord. Take what you want and sell the rest.

People who don't heat with wood will see "all that wood" and think the place is difficult to heat.

People around here would pay a tree service to haul all the cut up tree parts away, then pay a contractor to get that big weird metal thing out of the fireplace so it could be a big decorative air tunnel like everyone else's house.

I've also heard many times that wood stoves burn houses down but fireplaces are safe. (Also that I can't burn pine or my house will burn down.)

Conventional wisdom is often patently ridiculous, but it can be a factor to buyers.

There's also feature inertia- where people say, "I hate that light fixture and I'm not paying $200,000 for a house I don't like- let's go look at some $300,000 houses." (Meanwhile a new light fixture costs $20.)

kennyp2339 said:

Now you got my wheels turning, I've got around 15 cords, I originally was thinking of only taking half with me, the other half I could prob sell pick loads between $75.00 - $100.00, buyer loads him / her self, unless she's good looking.

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On the other hand, you could get a buyer who has heated with wood before, and your house could be "The Stove House with all that WOOD stacked out back" on his list- so it could be a great selling point too!

I think this is definitely dependent on the buyer of the house and something that needs to be worked out in the negotiations part of the sale. If it is popular to burn for wood heat in your area you may be in good or great shape. But in Central IL, it is fairly rare and I would likely negotiate taking stove/wood now or down the road if the person buying is reasonable. Also selling the extra to make your transfer easier is a good idea. I think once a few people see the house you will get a good indication of what people in your area are looking for.

Have you listed the house yet ? You could always put a description in the listing that the seller is willing to leave the wood pile and older stove for the new owner if the new owner is planning on burning wood. Lots of people uninterested in wood burning would be just as put off by having to remove a very heavy old stove if they are not into burning as they would be put off by removing the wood. If they don't want either you could offer to provide a credit against the cost of removing the wood ( if you don't have the time to sell it and remove it yourself ) or if you just don't want to deal with it.

If your like many people I know, and if your in a market where houses move quickly, the last thing you may want to have to think about is dealing with the wood pile and old stove . You will probably be concentrating on the sale and the new house.

If it were me though, and your going to burn at the new place , I'd get a few friends to help me trailer the wood and keep it . You will need it anyways at the new house ? Just tell your buddies you need help moving, don't mention the wood pile it's no different than moving the tv or the sofa ?? Just kidding sort of

We just sold our house this fall. I took the stove with me, but sold the wood. I had about 4 cord. We are renting through the winter, so I couldn't take the wood with me, which forced the sale of the wood. I did have a plan for bringing the wood (renting a truck and my brother) if we knew where we were going. But, we didn't find anything we liked.

I was pleasantly surprised that the moving company didn't bat an eye about moving the stove, as long as it was unhooked.

We did list the stove and the wood as an exclusion, but open to negotiation. The people that ended up buying our house didn't want the wood or the stove. Although, about a week before the closing, they said they wanted the stove....for free.

begreen said:

Sure they wanted the stove, for free. We see a lot of stoves for sale that are by new home owners. All they are interested in is the value of the used stove.

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Why didn't they want the wood?? If they keep the stove, the stove needs wood. If they sell the stove, 4 cords could bring a higher price than the stove itself.

kennyp2339 said:

I originally was thinking of only taking half with me, the other half I could prob sell pick loads between $75.00 - $100.00,

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The number of people that see wood piles as the true asset they are, are few and far between so sell all you can. Besides at closing the buyer will pay you for any oil you leave but not the wood? No thanks. If you can use the proceeds to buy a few cords for the new house to get ahead. Likely you'll have plenty to do and would be a big help not to ave to do any wood cutting right away.

When we sold our place in the fall they didn't really want to heat with wood. But they liked the looks of the Homestead. We had listed as negotiable. Since we had already bought a place and moved we just wanted that place gone. It worked out. Now we have NG Boiler with baseboard heat. I am trying to figure out what I want to do. Woodstove (Blaze King ????) or wood boiler and storage? Negotiable probably way to go

15 cords.. that is a lot of wood to move! Even with a big dump trailer that is going to be multiple loads. Good luck with whatever you decide. When I move out I am reinstalling the insert into the fireplace and taking my free stander with me. The fireplace is no longer functional now anyhow. Depending what I end up doing with my second stove, and wood pile, I may list it as 'negotiable' so the buyer realizes this has value and even if they have no interest that I am prepared to take it and not leave it for them to deal with.

Move or sell . . . and to be honest, it would probably be easier to sell. Maybe even a local Hearth.com member would be interested in buying some wood . . . or working out a deal where they help you move some and they keep some? Just thinking out loud here.

jetsam said:

On the other hand, you could get a buyer who has heated with wood before, and your house could be "The Stove House with all that WOOD stacked out back" on his list- so it could be a great selling point too!

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You have to go with probability, and that's not the most probable scenario. Sell it all, get it out of there and plant some pretty flowers.

mass_burner said:

You have to go with probability, and that's not the most probable scenario. Sell it all, get it out of there and plant some pretty flowers.

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That is pretty much what my realtor said.

Depending on how far you're moving, I would probably take enough wood for the 16-17 season at least. Maybe sell the rest, maybe cheap! Better than losing out entirely on your efforts.

Hey, think of it this way. YOU could be the FIRST GUY in the history of our country to ever sale truly seasoned firewood!

I sold in aug, and moved 5cords around the corner to a friends acre lot. Came back in oct and loaded 3 dump trailers full and 1 truck bed! I dont think i could do that again, but glad i had it since i knew i was installing an insert at new place.
As much as i hated to leave my shelburne and hearth i labored over, we were glad to move on and out of the neighborhood.

Kenny you know as well as I do no one around our area sells true seasoned wood you should just put a add up on Craigslist and sell now and leave half a cord with the house right on 23 he is selling green wood cut split and loaded in dump and selling same day don't think about and start selling tomorrow before to late

List it with the stove, and state the wood in terms of how many winters worth of heat it is! There is a big difference to the uninitiated potential homeowner between, "fifteen cords of seasoned firewood" and "five winters worth of free heating with wood-stove and prepared firewood".

If someone wants the house but the wood is an issue, just list it on Craigslist and it will be gone. If you let the right people know (forum members, local woodburners, local wood suppliers), they will come for it. It will probably be gone in a week if you list it cheap and/or free.

If it has been listed and the photos of the stove and/or wood are shown then you might be in a pickle if you remove them. Especially the stove. It is part of the package unless specified otherwise. It might be common sense that the wood is fuel so you can remove it without recourse.

When I bought my current home in December it had a decent EPA insert and NO firewood. It sucked. The previous owner actually brought over a wheelbarrow of wood for us to use and then I had to turn to craigslist for "seasoned" wood in December with snow on the ground while also dealing with a flooded crawlspace and an unsafe zinsco electrical panel, and and and and. I wish he left me a cord of wood.

We are weird. We are woodstove enthusiasts. We make up a very small percentage of the very small percentage of folks that use wood for heat.

jetsam said:

.....then pay a contractor to get that big weird metal thing out of the fireplace so it could be a big decorative air tunnel like everyone else's house.

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And now part of my breakfast is on my monitor and keyboard. LOL.

If ever sell this house. The stove and as much wood as I can move will be coming with me.


I had two face cord stacked at our apartment that had no stove I moved befor we bought this place also with no stove. The firewood I had was the first thing I moved from the apartment to the new house lol.

There are some pretty awesome new stoves on the market and moving old stoves is hard. I would look at this as an opportunity to upgrade!