Kellie Welborn /Planet Green
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Nearly 20 years ago, Chicago-based demolition auctioneer Jodi Murphy was just an ambitious home rehabber with a maxed out mortgage, looking for ways to cut costs on her renovations. As with most first-time homeowners, Jodi had dreams that were far bigger than her checkbooks.
One day, Jodi noticed a nearby house slated to be demolished. With kids in tow, she toured the demo site and was amazed at what was being thrown away. The house contained like-new fixtures that were far superior to anything she could afford brand-new. On the spot, she made an offer to the builder, which was accepted, and her demolition auction business was born.
Immediately, Jodi started harvesting hundreds of homes destined for destruction, auctioning off thousands of dollars worth of recyclable fixtures, appliances and other reusable elements each week, room-by-room, doorknob-by-doorknob. Today, Jodi's company, Murco Recycling holds over 60 auctions a year. Her industry awards include The 1996 Outstanding Recycler from Illinois Recycling Association and the 1999 Governors Pollution Prevention Award.
With a public hungry for affordable building materials, Jodi was one of the first in the country to recognize this opportunity to reuse and recycle, and her socially-conscious business savvy has built a market of devoted followers and newcomers alike who are interested in finding a deal and giving everything, from full kitchens to hot water heaters, a second life.
Jodi is proud of the fact that her company's efforts have people hauling off over 20% of each condemned home to their own houses rather than allowing the materials to feed landfills. "We've found a win-win-win situation," Jodi says. "The rehabbers couldn't get this stuff any cheaper, the owners of the house make a little extra money selling something that's just garbage for them, and the load that goes to the landfill is smaller."
The fiery and fun redheaded mother of three beautiful daughters (who often work alongside their mother at auctions) likes to think of herself as an "architectural archaeologist, guiding treasure seekers from site to site to unearth phenomenal finds from houses facing extinction." As Jodi says, "everyone 'digs' a deal!"
Learn more about Jodi: Read her Trib Local Interview.
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