The Problem With Detached Garages

January 13th, 2012 // filed under: Buying a Home, First Time Home Buyers, Home Upgrades, Home Value, MD, Selling a Home, Southern Maryland

I’ve been planning to build a detached garage for some time now. It was on my list of things I wanted when I bought a house last year, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be.  I know own a beautiful house, but I have no garage.

The lack of a garage is a pretty serious issue, for me at least.  Not having one is simply not a long term option as far as I’m concerned.  With that being said, I’m now in the process of getting permits pulled to build one(I’m less than thrilled, but what can you do?).  With the upcoming construction of my new garage, I will be committing one of the cardinal sins of home ownership:  DON’T OVER-IMPROVE YOUR HOME!

Make no mistake, a detached garage can be a beautiful thing.  I love a good man-cave as much as the next guy, but on a dollar-for-dollar re-sale basis, my future automotive showroom is going to make me bleed red ink.

Odds are good that my garage project will cost in the neighborhood of $30,000.  From a resale perspective, it’s probably only worth an additional 5%-8% of value for my home, which would add $10,000-$16,000.  It’s safe to assume that I will end up losing half of the money I put into the project when it comes to selling the home.  The issue is not with the quality of construction or size, but rather it’s a limited benefit to my home’s future owner.

I have a need for the space.  Where else could I store an antique car safely with it’s own security system?  Most people don’t care for that sort of thing, so if you’re like me and in need of a private, detached space for your vehicles, knock your socks off, but don’t expect a dollar-for-dollar return when it’s time to sell your home.

(photo courtesy of EPA Smart Growth via Flickr CC)

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posted by Jonathan Benya // 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2012 at 2:08 pm and is filed under Buying a Home, First Time Home Buyers, Home Upgrades, Home Value, MD, Selling a Home, Southern Maryland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  1. Doug Francis said at January 23rd, 2012 at 9:02 am

    As long as the garage matches the house, has a window, nice doors, maybe even a little cupola and weather vane, it really will make your house stand out from the competition in the future.

    If it is just a box in the back yard then it will add no value, but if done well then you will know it was money well spent and it will bring car-joy to your life!

    Your garage won’t be a problem at all.

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