Selling your house with a reef tank

[Davy Jones]

Wife and I were discussing selling our house in the next few years, with my 125 gallon arriving soon it brings up some questions about how to do that!

So what did you do when you sold your house and wanted to transfer your reef? Ideally I would buy the new house while I still owned my house but I know I won't be able to afford to do that.

Second question, what do you do with your tank when your house is being shown? How do you keep people from messing with it during the showings?

 

[alanbetiger]

I rented back the house for 2 weeks to move and transfer the tank. It's pretty standard and typically easy to include into your closing. We wanted to upgrade anyways so replaced the 190 gallon with a 350 gallon in the new place. Logistically it was easier to go through a LFS. Had them break down the old tank in the old house. They "bought" that tank so took it with them. Then set up and transferred everything in the new tank all in the same day. We only moved about 50 gallons of water so with that big of a "water change" didn't see anything in parameters. Used my old rock and added new sand/new rock. If you were keeping the tank something like a 125 wouldn't be to bad to transfer, but like I did perfect time for an upgrade!
Now we would of been liable for any damage to the home if anything happened which is why I didn't trust me and my friends to do it.
While showing the house I put signs on each side of the tank saying "Do NOT Touch. The aquarium costs $6000. You break it, you buy it" $6000 was quite a bit overkill for my setup but reasonable enough for people to believe it and not mess with it. And I told my agent to inform the other agents that as well. In the end it would of been easy to track down if anything happened because we only had viewings and didn't do a open house.

 

[saltyhog]

Like alanbetiger said, ask for "delayed occupancy" on the house you're selling. We got 5 days which made it pretty stress free to move the tank. We got that for free but if you think you need longer you can offer to pay rent during the delayed occupancy.

I don't think you have to worry about buyers messing with your tank but if you're concerned just make sure your agent informs all lookers that the tank is hands off.

 

[ryshark]

I agree, just tell your real estate agent to advise the other agents and hide the fish food and magnet cleaners. That's what I did, it wasn't an issue.
The way the title was written, I was thinking it was an in-wall tank. As everyone already said, you can ask for extra time after the close of escrow to transfer your tank.

 

[andyg1960]

I sold the tank locally prior to the move, i didnt think the inhabtants would do well on a long move. Wanted a bigger tank too :-). It was still set up during showing. Realtor kept an eye on it. Nobody touched it

 

[Davy Jones]

Thanks for the responses! The move would be a few miles away so not concerned in that aspect, good to know about the agent keeping people from messing with the tank during showings!

 

[Paul B]

I had an open house today as I am also selling my house with a 100 gallon reef in the wall. I just tel the people the tank is going with the house, but everything in it is coming with me. If all goes well I will buy a larger tank and set it up in the new home, then bring everything there in vats. Thats the plan, But I doubt it will work like that.

 

[Kzguns]

I tore my 100g down before it went on the market. Realtor said most people won’t want it and may request it be taken down and then you’ll have 30-45 days to deal with it. It definitely sucked but even if they wanted it they likely won’t be “reefers” and it’ll go to hell.

 

[ihavecrabs]

I also tore my tank down prior to going on the market but kept a few smaller pieces in a nano aio.

I also had a delay between selling and buying sms wanted to sell with no contingencies. Sold the day after it went on the market. That was April of last year and I am cycling my new tank in the new house as we speak.

Took a little longer as I built it in wall and custom ordered the tank for the space. It would have been a nightmare to bring my live stock with me for that process.

Starting over does stink though!

 

[gmcc14]

In NY it isn’t uncommon for a seller to close and remain in possession for a few days. The parties would sign a post possession agreement that would lay out the terms of transfer of possession, and adjust the taxes and mortgage interest based on the possession date rather than the closing date.

 

[[Cameron]]

Some buyers will be turned off by a large aquarium in a house. Houses don't like high humidity and large tanks are a possible indicator of flooding. Most buyers won't notice but those with experience probably will.

That said, breaking down a tank for a move is pretty simple but time consuming.

 

[Bpb]

Following. We are moving this year as well and I’m trying to get as much info on the process as I can. I’ve switched tanks before in the same house but never moved a tank.

I’ve decided moving the sps just isn’t worth the effort. So I’ll be basically getting rid of ALL corals in the months prior to the move. My rocks have also become annoyingly infested with aiptasia, discosoma and Blue cloves so I’ll be curing some marine pure in my sump for a couple months. Playing musical tanks and putting my fish in a 75 gallon holding tank with marine pure and pvc structures, pulling all my rocks and bleaching them dead. I’ll then start curing them in a brute can for several months leading up to the move. While we are packing and breaking down the house, I’ll sell my old tank. When we actually move I’ll order a brand new tank to be delivered to the new house, upon which time I’ll slowly get it set up and aquascaped, and then the fish will be transferred over. I’ll wait another 6 months or so and start adding some tester acros.

That is my tentative plan. We will be building our new home on a construction loan so no need to bail and rent a place. Will just need enough time to move in the sale contingency. Equity of current house will be used as down payment for the mortgage. But the house will be built prior to closing. That is if I could keep my wife off realtor and Zillow looking at move in ready options.

Anyhow my reason for getting rid of corals but keeping fish is that acros just don’t mix well with fresh tanks in my experience. They need a good year of maturity. I don’t want to just kill them all in a move, and would rather have people hold them so I can get them back later.

Healthy fish are harder and harder to come by these days and I don’t want to have to buy all new fish and deal with the constant management of quarantine and illness treatment. It’s more trouble than I’m prepared for. Some of my fish are over 10 years old and never been sick so I aim to give them 10 more years at least

 

[Davy Jones]

The tank isnt built into a wall or anything, but I also dont plan on tearing it down prior to selling. It really will be setup for about 2.5 years or so and I dont want all that just to go to waste. Plus everything was recently ordered and the tank will be shipped soon.

I am also not at all concerned about moving the tank itself between houses, more the logistics of selling my house and being able to have the couple of days to move it in the new place i know the easy answer is to tear it down but i am hoping to avoid that. Ill have to look into the delayed residence that was brought up, would hopefully only need it for a couple days if i can line up the sale of mine with the purchase of another through contingency

 

[D.WhiteShark]

I'd like to follow along here as well. I just built my tank into the wall and pretty extensively so. I'm interested in seeing if any anyone chimes in on value increases or decreases in a home for sell with everything left in it and running. My wife and I plan to leave CA in a few years to TX so my plan was to just walk away from everything I have here and start fresh once we move. Any thoughts?

 

[ThunderGoose]

Not completely on topic but I did move a 55 gallon freshwater (planted) tank a 2 day drive to a new house. Not much fun but I only lost one fish in the whole process. I also pruned back my plants which gave the tank a more open look and gave me the opportunity to try some new plants so I didn't really mind. The fun part was doing a water change for the buckets that were holding fish in the hotel room!

Well, the real fun was the funny looks I got making trip after trip through the lobby carrying 5 gallon buckets.

 

[alanbetiger]

I'd like to follow along here as well. I just built my tank into the wall and pretty extensively so. I'm interested in seeing if any anyone chimes in on value increases or decreases in a home for sell with everything left in it and running. My wife and I plan to leave CA in a few years to TX so my plan was to just walk away from everything I have here and start fresh once we move. Any thoughts?

You would pigeonhole yourself into a real niche market. I don't know you or your neighborhood, could be multimillion dollar houses with people happy to pay for aquarium maintenance. The average person wouldn't want a tank with the house. Definitely depends on area and size of tank. But for sure wouldn't add value to the home and if anything they would charge you for removal if left behind. You could post the house including the tank on a local forum to see if any hobbists want to buy, but again a tiny buying market. Unless the tank is 100% pristine I would sell the tank prior to putting the house on the market. Added bonus of not having to keep up with maintenance while you plan a big move. Personally I agree I wouldn't move a tank interstate.

 

[jgvergo]

I recently moved from a house I lived in for 22 years. It was a pretty large house (4000 sqf) and it was time to move b/c the kids are all grown and out on their own.

I can honestly say that moving the reef tank was as much work as the entire rest of the move! My wife is a saint and handled a lot more of the move than she should have had to do.

I had my system hard plumbed through the floor to a basement utility room with my sump, Apex, etc., so all that needed to be replumbed because my new set up has the sump under the DT (all on the same floor).

The worst part was that I had to rent a place for two months before I could move into my new house. I brought all my livestock to a LFS which was promptly hit with Velvet - 100% fish mortality:(. My corals came back with aptaisia, bubble algea and a lot of bleaching.

I'm *finally* up and running again in my new house. I hope I never have to move again but if I do, I'll just sell everything and set up a bigger tank next time. No moving the tank or livestock!!!

 

[Tallison]

I'm moving from TX to CA later this year and am wondering how the hell i'm going to get my 150 to CA livestock intact. Think I came to the conclusion I was going to break down the tank sell it, sell off any livestock I dont want and see if my LFS can ship me my livestock while i get a new 6ft lagoon tank ive been wanting :)

 

[Lowstorm]

This is perfect. We're looking at moving in 6 months. Along with all the mess that comes with selling, already on 1 mortgage, etc. We're def. moving the tank. But right now my tank has... issues. Aptaisia forest anyone? I was actually coming on here to see how long I have to leave LR out, drying, before they'd die. And that's WITH a fancy new filefish in the tank. IS it feasible to run everything in a smaller tub for now, dry everything out, scrap the sand, make moving easier for sure. Only fish I'd actually worry about without sand is my monster shrimp goby.

Then everything moves in 6 months or so. Wait, 5 months or so. That would give me time to recycle my rock in a garbage can, huh? Oh, this thread gave me ideas! Thanks everyone.