Get Even More Visitors To Your Blog, Upgrade To A Business Listing >>

Homes for sale with three car garage

Tags: garage

 

 

When looking for a home to purchase, most people know that kitchens and bathrooms sell the house. A home with an outdated, tiny kitchen will generally sell for less and take longer to sell than a home which has a spacious, updated kitchen. Bathrooms also are a big deal for homebuyers. The more bathrooms that you can get in a home for the price, the more people seem to like them. Another point which for many buyers is a big deal is the Garage.

The garage is an economical way of getting extra space to store your stuff. In fact, if you were to drive around a neighborhood in which all the garage doors were open, you find a good percentage of homes that have the garage filled with other things than their cars. However, especially for people who live in cold climates, having a garage in which to park their car to keep it protected from the elements, and to avoid early morning scraping of windows, garages can be an essential point on a buyer’s must-have list.

Many people are okay with a two car garage, however more and more buyers are opting for homes with a third bay. Even for people who have only one or two cars to park in the garage, having extra space to store tools, freezers, lawn mowers, etc., having a three-car garage jumps higher onto their priority list.

The number of garages that are generally found in a home depends a lot on the neighborhood in which the home is located. Older neighborhoods may have no garage or may have a garage that is not attached to the home. Starter neighborhoods typically have two car garages. And it seems that the larger or more expensive the home, the more bays are included in the garage.

Extra garage bays generally add more value to a home than it costs to build them. So for a person who is building a home, if they have the option of adding a third bay without overwhelming the home or the lot, not only will they get use out of it while they are living in the home, but they will have better resale value when they eventually sell the property. And especially in colder climates when the garage is finished with insulation and sheetrock, the garage can help the home sell more quickly and will help the home get a higher price.

When making the decision about whether to purchase a home with a two car garage or three car garage, home buyers should look at their lifestyle. If they find that they are always having to rent a storage unit to the tune of seventy-five to one hundred and fifty dollars a month to store all of their extra stuff, looking for a home with an extra garage bay can save the money in the long run. An extra bay adds a little over 200 ft.² to the garage. As the cost of building a garage is significantly less than building the same amount of square feet within the home, the added cost to the mortgage that they may be paying for a three car garage home, versus a two car garage home, is not very significant when the cost is amortized over a 30 year loan. If they are paying $50 a square foot to add the third bay, the amount added to their monthly mortgage payment could be between 50 and $75. And the added benefit is that they dont have to drive somewhere to get to their stuff.

If a home comes with a generous amount of storage space which might include a basement or an attic, a buyer might not feel the need for extra space in the garage. In fact, many times the garage can feel like it is overpowering the home, which is a turn-off to some buyers. And so making sure that the size of the garage fits the size of the house is something that you want keep under consideration if this is a concern to you. If you do not want a third bay because you feel like it would make the garage too big for the house, but you do need the extra storage space, look for plans that have oversized garages. This can mean that it is a two car garage that has been built five or 6 feet wider or deeper than normal, which gives enough space for workbenches, freezers or storage shelves.

Other options for garages with the extra space could be tandem garages. This means that the garage is deep enough for two cars to sit end to end. Sometimes these tandem garages will hold three cars, with one of the bays of the garage sitting in front of part of the living space of the house, and with the tandem area of the garage heading back beside along the side of the house. Some tandem garages might be four car garages, which allow for the depth of two cars in each bay of the garage. And still, other times the third bay may be shorter than would fit a standard 16-foot car, but which will allow for plenty of room for other uses or to store toys and lawn equipment.

When considering your potential use of the garage, keeping in mind the size of the actual garage itself will help to keep you from getting any unexpected surprises. Some builders, in order to save money, make garages just big enough to fit the cars, with the required 30 inches on either side of the car to open the car doors. This doesnt leave enough room to use the garage for anything but parking cars, and you might find yourself parking in the driveway to make room for all of the other things that you want to keep in the garage. Many garages are only 20 feet deep, which is okay if all you want to do is to park your 16-foot car and have a little room to go around to get the door to your home. But if you have a pickup truck, or a freezer or 2-foot shelves, you are pretty much out of luck. So check the width and depth of the garage before purchasing a home.

As you can see the simple, unassuming garage requires a little more thought and consideration than you might have thought if garage space is important to you.

www.ths.gardenweb.com

www.ezinearticles.com



This post first appeared on Real Estate, please read the originial post: here

Share the post

Homes for sale with three car garage

×

Subscribe to Real Estate

Get updates delivered right to your inbox!

Thank you for your subscription

×