This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
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Can you legally profit from salvaging barn wood? Can you go out and sell barn wood? It's also called salvaged wood. Salvaged wood is really popular with boutique builders, DIYers. Just imagine coffee tables with 1890s nail holes, that farmhouse aesthetic that HGTV made famous.
Of course, nobody talks about the spiders, the tetanus nails, the township inspectors who can shut you down. I don't know if all those things are always a problem, but we're gonna hear from a caller today with an idea. This is Alec, he's looking at these roadside relics, hoping to sell them for cash, but he's worried something's gonna come along and cause some difficulty. Does he need a permit? Does he need insurance?
Does he need to worry about those spiders? Well, I can't solve all those problems, but I'll try to talk about what is most important in terms of his side hustle idea. Let's see if we can turn the barnyard fantasy into a safe, profitable reality. Detailed question from Alec and my answer coming right up. [Music]
Hi everybody, I'm Alec from rural Indiana.
Whenever I drive the back roads out here, I see half collapsed barns with gorgeous old oak and chestnut boards. I've asked a couple of property owners if I could take the wood and they basically shrugged and said, "Sure, it's trash dust." Could salvaging that number be a legit side hustle? I've heard some horror stories about permits and liability. If I get written permission from the owners, is it legal? And can it actually make money once I factor in hauling and cleanup?
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Well, as an expert on selling barn wood, let me just get into my extensive knowledge on this topic. Of course I'm kidding, I don't know anything about selling reclaimed lumber, but I did some research. Reclaimed lumber, I talked to some friends, went and looked online at people who are selling this in different states. And it works if you treat it like a small demolition business, not a casual pickup. That was probably the number one advice that I heard.
I also heard some stories about permits and such as well. So basically, if you're going to a property address, if you're going to a property that someone owns, get a salvage agreement in writing. It can just be really simple, one page, basically just stating that all wood materials may be removed and resold, as well as a clause that you assume risk on site. Looks like most places accept a very simple agreement, you just need something. And do also check local demolition rules.
That is a key point, because even if the barn is falling over, a lot of rural counties require a no fee structure removal form, just so they know an outbuilding is being altered. So again, this is going to vary by jurisdiction, but look for local demolition rules and check on that structure removal thing. If you don't do that, you can risk fines. Okay, so that's where some of the horror stories come from, people who have to pay $500 or $1,000 or more. Next, insurance is a pretty cheap piece of mind.
You can pay $30 a month for a million dollar general liability policy. So that seems like a small price to pay to me. And then as always, you want to kind of run your numbers on any kind of business. So you run your little profit math. So you think about, okay, what is the structure?
Like how many boards am I going to get? And what's the retail price? And just kind of thinking that through and doing that math. If it doesn't seem like it's going to work, it's probably not going to work. Okay, so if you run into some red flags, this is where you start paying attention.
And then for your selling channels, maybe this is the last thing, Facebook Marketplace, everybody I talked to said, it's probably the number one source, at least in the United States. It moves raw planks quickly, post with some good photos. And you can go on other platforms as well, but basically local is how you want to do it. So if you think about those basics, I think, I don't know if it's going to be the most profitable side hustle of all time, but it seems like as long as you cover those bases, you don't have too many problems to worry about. So good luck, as always do your own research.
Listeners, let me know what kind of ideas you have, if you have a crazy or just a normal or any sort of side hustle idea or question about something else. sidehustleschool.com, notes pages available for all 3000 plus episodes as well. And of course our weekly newsletter, lots of fun stuff. And by the way, it's all completely free. All of it, completely free.
New episodes out every day as well, seven days a week. My name's Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
