Converting Garage To Force Equity
Hello everyone. I have a 3 bedroom, 1 1/2 bath basic flat ranch style florida home. Will converting the single car garage into a family room necessarily add value to the property. Personally, I would rather have a garage in my home for all my tools and junk, but for a resale would I get a greater price if it were converted? Thanks.
I dunno, is it going to LOOK like a converted garage? If is is, I'd skip it and continue to use it for storing my junk. If you can blend it nicely into the living portion of the structure, maybe it'b be ok, but only if you have enough room elsewhere on the lot to build another garage. This is just a drive by opinion, and I don't know anything about the actual resale one way or the other, but those would be my own personal, off the top of my head concerns. Z
Zach's back!!
Wazzup man?
Keep the garage you will only recover about 60% of conversion cost. This is from the NAHB-Remodelers Council.
i've wondered about this myself. if it's a detached, kinda making it a makeshift little carriage house on the premises. great addition for a family with early teens who demand thier "privacy". i love how teens nowadays can "demand" stuff from their parents. i'd think this would be a nice perk for someone who liked it. i'd take it, if i still lived with either of my Xs - a place to go to watch the game and not hear all the banter! whew!
I know someone who converted a detatched garage into an "apartment". It's about 20 feet by 24 feet, and all inclusive. I live in a rinky dink house now, but I can't imagine a place that small. But, it is ALWAYS rented! Z
I rent my 20 by 20 conversion, added an additional space and inserted a 3/4 bath. All tiled with skylight. Stuffed the walls and ceiling and then carpeted it out. Has stayed rented for $500. Done without permit but to code. Got house 10 years ago on lease option $98,000
of the $900 a month payment one half $450 applied to purchase price. The balance now owed was $44,000 . So I sold it for $400,000. Is it worth it? No but the world is mad and the buyer www.insane.This on a 40 by 135 lot in the heart of the North Hollywood Slums. Guess who the Buyer was? Right on the man who leased optioned the house to me some 10 years ago. Says he wants it for a rental! Thinks he can get $1,500 for house and of course $500 for the little converted garage. Thats $2,000 and he paid $400,000? Go figure, I cann't. I move at end of month. This time I think I will get a really nice 3 plus 2 in a better part of town. maybe a pool. The market is totaly insane here and all prior methods are being reviewed. Of course I am pretty well out of it. Containers take up all my time.
Lucius
The older we get the smaller the container we live in until a six ft pine box. If you will enjoy the extra den then do it. I have seen a lot of conversions where only half or so was converted where the front was still garage and the other was den. I did one myself where we had two g doors and took out one and made a den in half. This worked really well. I added a door and a window where the other door was and it worked great. Doing the work yourself will cost a lot less too.
Good LUCK and Thank You
Hope this helps some
Ted Jr
TimHuggins,
I say that's the great idea. I once did exactly that but my garage was large enough for 2 bedroom condo type of app. 19X 32 ... I also bought a tent alike shed and I start a small car detailing biz right in fornt. Biz together with new condo alike place increased the value of the overall property about $67,000. And I sold it cheep to the new renters. The guy I sold the prop to made another $80K year and a half later. Go for it, I would like to say.
I would go with MichaelChandler,s advice and not bother with it. Most people want a garage. If most of the houses in the neighborhood have a garage, you will be at a disadvantage trying to sell yours without it.
I agree with both davmille and MichaelChandler. You don't want the property to be "odd man out" in terms of the properties in its surroundings. Also, in my market, people would prefer a garage to a FR converted from one. So you might actually wind up devaluing the property.