North Carolina Couple Spends $200K Moving Home as Erosion Slowly Swallows Their Shoreline

When Dr. Scott Twentyman and Cindy Doughty of Rodanthe, NC, bought their three-story beach house in 2002, extreme weather and beach erosion weren't issues they worried about.

"It wasn’t on our radar at the time," Twentyman tells Realtor.com®. "We never even thought of it."

But over time, Rodanthe eroded nearly 13 feet per year, according to some estimates, ultimately putting the couple’s dream home at risk. So, they had to move—but they weren't going without their house!

The perfect storm

Twentyman and Doughty saw several of their neighbors' houses fall into the Atlantic Ocean back in 2019, when the Outer Banks was hit by three nor'easters in a row, including Hurricane Dorian.

"When one of the houses went down, one of the neighbor's pilings crashed down through our back door, and our first floor had 2 feet of water in it," Doughty recalls. "It was crazy."

The couple knew they had to take action—and fast.

"It was clear we had to move or lose the house," says Twentyman. "We had no choice."

If they put the house on the market, they feared they would get a lowball offer, since the home was uninhabitable at that point.

"Plus, we could never get something like this house again, so we really didn't want to sell it," notes Twentyman.

"And you can never replace the view," Doughty adds. "This is not something you can just go out and buy somewhere."

The solution? Move the house entirely. Luckily, they were "fortunate" to own a double lot, Twentyman explains, so moving the house was actually a viable option.

"Otherwise, there would have been no empty lots to move it to, since Hatteras Island is built out," he says.

The price of saving their home

The couple ultimately made the decision to relocate their home 100 feet further inland from the encroaching beach. While not a far move, it was still a significant undertaking that came with a hefty price tag—over $200,000, all of which they had to pay out of their own pockets.

The reason for this substantial out-of-pocket expense, Twentyman explains, is that insurance companies typically refuse to cover the costs of proactively moving a home, even if it's clearly endangered by natural forces.

"The insurance company says the house has to fall into the ocean before you get paid," Twentyman laments. "It's idiotic."

In order to save their home, the couple had to take out a home equity loan on another property they owned to finance the move themselves.

"We hired a company called Expert House Movers, and they certainly earned their name," says Twentyman, explaining that they were the same team to move the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in the late 1990s.

Due to the same erosion problem, the historic structure need to be relocated 2,900 feet from the spot on which it had stood since 1870.

Knowing they handled such an important project gave the couple "confidence" to trust their own home would be moved with care.

Time was of the essence

They had to completely remove the first floor—which consisted of an entryway, laundry room, and stairway—so they could put girders under the house on top of the pilings to support the weight of the structure.

And because hurricane season was underway, it was a race against time.

"Once the house is gone, you can’t do anything with that land—it's a total loss," says Twentyman. "The house goes down—that's it."

Securing the necessary permits and completing construction took several long months.

"It was very stressful," says Doughty.

But luckily, the actual act of moving the house only took about 20 minutes.

"I was really surprised how quickly that part happened," Doughty adds.

The big move

Shockingly, they didn't have to take anything out of the house before it was moved.

"I just assumed we'd have to empty out the house and take all the glassware off the shelves, but they told me we didn’t have to do anything," recalls Doughty.

Though the night of the move was marked by heavy storms, a brief calm allowed the house to be transported.

"The wind died down, the rain stopped, and it got really quiet," says Doughty. "I still get goosebumps just thinking about it."

After the home was moved, the pilings were no longer driven into sand—they were now sitting on bedrock.

"Knowing it’s on bedrock gives us more peace of mind, especially when bad weather strikes," says Twentyman.

No second thoughts

The couple says they have absolutely no regrets about moving their house and would advise other people in coastal communities to consider doing the same.

"It was a big leap of faith, but it paid off," says Doughty. "We both have such a strong emotional connection to this house, and we didn't want to lose it."

Although the experience was stressful, Twentyman says it actually drew them closer together as a couple, "because we were in this battle together, side by side."