jkelley

I'm considering building my own detached garage probably in the next 2-3 years. My wife and I have relocated to NC (Greensboro area) recently and we will be purchasing a home in the next 6-months or so once our home in SC sells (currently living out of an apartment).

I really enjoy my hobbies and cannot be caught standing still. I'm always working on something, learning something, f^&*ing something up (lol). So I've been reading into people that build their own detached garages, which seems like a great fit for what I already love to do, and when it's finished it would be a new central place to furnish all of my existing an new hobbies; including working on cars, brewing, woodworking, and most likely bodywork+prep and spraying. Additionally, my father is an excellent handyman and has done several rennovation projects as a hobby as well and he would help out a lot since he's currently unemployed and not looking for work for a while.

I've been reading around a lot and have spent maybe 10 hours so far developing a fairly exhaustive spreadsheet of everything that would go into this before I pull the trigger down the road (and the exhaustive list is probaly only 25% of what the reality will be lol).

My wife and I have no children and will probably start trying in 2-3 years, 1 or maybe 2 kids (if all goes as planned). We purchased our first home for much less than what we could afford because we didn't care to have a whole bunch of space and other shit that we didn't use, so our lifestyle fits comfortably at about 2,000 sqft even with a kid or two.

For our next home we would love to find another 2,000 sqft single-story, maybe two story home on 0.25-1.0 acre (I enjoy lawn work as well) in the $150-200k range (price point is pertinent to my real question, below).

The garage I'm planning will have a lot of bells and whistles. It'll be a 2-3 car, dimensions in the ballpark of 40 x 36 ft with a approximately 12 x 15 ft "loft" area (i know... ff style lol. but it's actually specifically for my wife because otherwise she wont let me spend any time in the garage lol). It would have central air, excellent foundation (frost walls/footings 4ft, gravel base, wire mesh, radiant heat tubing and insulation, rebar reinforcement under lift and couple other areas, slab ~6-8" thick, vapor barrier, etc.) We would also pour a patio, sidewalk, and driveway for the extension. The inside would have cabinents, a paint booth, one 2 or 4 post lift, sink/toilet, and the loft would have a wet bar. I'd also put in a covered external dust collector and electric water heater. The loft would have an external staircase from outside in.

Drum roll for the question: If we build this (remember, 150-200k house) and it costs me anywhere from $15k if I went ahead and decreased the scope to a much smaller garage, or $50-60k because I went all out (I'm thinking our budget will be about $35-40k), would the property be more desirable? Less desirable? We don't plan on living here forever, maybe 8-10 years. I'm just concerned because I'm wondering what the market would be for such a small house with a very nice garage/guest house. I don't want to make the house virtually unsalable. I don't mind taking a loss since we wouldn't move away from the property without a substantial increase in salary anyways. Or could it possibly go the other way and be worth more than what we put in? We are planning on doing everything ourselves except the actual pouring/shaping of the crete.

I know that this of course is dependent on exactly where the house is, real estate-wise, economy, etc. But let's assume business-as-usual economically and that it would be in a non-HOA "loose" neighborhood (as I call it) where basically there are houses around each other but with big yards and no HOA, no pool/tennis, etc (like our current house). Would it be "too much" of an upgrade for a house in a neighborhood like this to where no one would buy it? It wouldn't be in BFE, we would only buy within 10 minutes of a major highway since my wife works too.

Any insight would be much appreciated!

Ryuu

nice garage.. oddly since my thread has my needs, i'm considering increasing my garage as we speak with a 2 post..

and a nice story..

I used to have a barn as an out building and it was an added value due to the property.. but, from other real estate.. something like.. if your garage is worthy,, yes.. if it's, like the normal of the neighborhood, not much if any.. your sounds like more note worthy.. as a general rule of thumb..

however another concept,, what will that neighborhood be in say 10 years or so while you an the mrs raise those kids.. 15yrs, so on..

jkelley

Are there enough people that are willing/wanting to purchase a ~$150-200k home that has had a detached garage added (total of 5 garage spaces?). Or is that an extremely small market? Or would it be like an old, fine wine; most people dont care, but the 0.001% that do care are willing to pay for it and are actively searching for it? If that makes sense?

SlowTeg

I'd say best to talk to some realtors in your area. I know I'd love a house with a detached garage, but how much it'll add to the value of a property is hard to say. Even if some people might like it, there's the actual value/reality which may be something else. Because it's not a necessity for many people, getting 100% of your money back (assuming you're hiring someone to build it) is unlikely. I think it'd be similar to a pool or other "luxury" items. Some folks are willing to pay more for it than others. When it comes time to sell, if you happen to be lucky and find someone looking for a house with a large detached garage, all the better.

jkelley

I agree if I was having someone build it. Typically that puts the build value at the retail value of a (new) home. I would be doing 90-95% of the work, which from my estimates would reduce the overall cost by about 60%, since I've been seeing a lot of quotes and materials lists that put the labor in at about 60% cost.

I'm just curious if I built a 3-car for say $20-25k that would be about a $50-63k build price if I stood back and watched it get built. I would assume I could add a minimum value to the property of $20k, right? I don't think that's unreasonable? Wouldn't someone buy it for that?

Ryuu

there is normal enough, wow and too much.. everywhere has normal enough. you can sell a wow.. and you endup having to give away a too much...

SlowTeg

Gotcha.. ya if you do most of it yourself, then ya, no question you'll likely get back at least the money you put in, as long as you don't go too crazy like someone else said. If you aren't planning on staying forever (or the better part of your life), I'd try to cut back a little on certain things that might be "over the top," since you likely won't get your money back. Not to mention, how much time are you really going to have to enjoy it? I just had a baby, and newborns/kids are time sinks. I can guarantee you when kids come along your time to play in the garage will diminish greatly.

I'd say just try and be realistic with the plans and plan for having much less free time. If it'll take you a year to build it, then say you'll only be there an additional 7 yrs (many of those yrs with babies and young kids), you likely won't have too much time for hobbies and really get to enjoy your garage. If you're pretty sure you'll be staying put for a good long while, then I say go crazy!

jkelley

I completely agree wth you. I know that once I build it I probably won't have much time to spend in it, but 75% of the reason I want to do it is the project of building it itself, not using it later. Otherwise I don't even think I would consider it because you're compeltely right, when kids come I'm never going to get to use it lol.

I think if it took me two years to plan and build, that even if we had kids right around that time that I would still be okay with that. Maybe that's just my personality. As long as it wasn't a complete money suck like other hobbies (autox for instance); that money is just poof, gone. This at least would have some value at the end of the day, which would be okay with me. Even if I made $0.50/hour on the net sale price, I would be happy lol.

Ryuu

if it's large enough for what all your doing, there will be room to change something to add kids stuff.. your seemingly pre-designing expansion all over it... just continue...

SlowTeg

A shame you don't live close by to me. I could use some skilled labor and pay .50/hour to build me a detached garage.. I'm a big fan of projects too, but wouldn't be too thrilled with a return of .50/hr. If you want projects but want a better return you can do renovations on your existing house (assuming it could use some renovations). Kitchen/bathrooms can be done with $20k and you'll get a much better return on your time.