Deciding When to and Whether You Can Demo a Property

[Joseph Foley]

Hi folks,

Not sure if this is the right forum for this question.  If it's not, i'll move it elsewhere.

I'm dealing with the sale of my childhood home in a very old area in Setauket, NY on Long Island.  The house needs a lot of work to be sold as a viable home.  It's a pretty good target for a flip if my mother were willing to put some significant elbow grease in.  But for various reasons, she isn't interested in taking on that risk or work.

Houses on this street have gone for more than 1m several times. Those that have are fairly old - 1880s - but in very good shape.

Before we attempt to sell it to a third party, I'd like to find out if there are any restrictions on us demo'ing the house completely and starting over.  It seems to me that a modern home with high end finishes has a chance to sell for over 1m, which would net significantly more than selling to a flipper.

I don't really know where to start to figure that out.  Anyone have any suggestions?

Joseph