Is a Garage Addition a Wise Investment?

Guest Blogger #818, Entry #1932, December 13, 2012

Could a garage addition be a wise investment for your home? Putting money into home improvements can be kind of hit or miss when it comes to seeing a return on investment. For example, a modern kitchen or bathroom makeover stands to net you a considerable percentage of return if you sell your home soon after. But installing new flooring, while potentially making your home more attractive to buyers, probably won’t show any appreciable return on the sum you put into it. The point is that you need to be careful about how you invest your money where renovations are concerned if you want to get that money back down the line. Although you can enjoy upgrades in the meantime, you don’t want to end up selling your house for less than you spent on it. So when it comes to the question of whether or not to complete a garage addition, here are a few things to consider.

Will your home benefit from a garage addition?

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Does your garage addition add to your home square footage?

The first thing to note is that this is probably the only home addition that won’t add square footage to your property listing. Sadly, the garage is not calculated in your total square footage; that honor goes only to potentially livable space. So if you’re looking to increase the size of your house for listing purposes, adding on to the garage won’t cut it. You’re better off expanding the kitchen or adding another bedroom and bathroom. That said, you might not necessarily be going after the bump you’ll get from extra declared space for your house. It might be that you currently have no garage or that the one you do have is simply inadequate for the needs of the average modern homeowner, in which case such an addition could definitely have benefits.

Garage addition can add to buyer appeal

For one thing, adding or expanding your garage space could make your property much more attractive to prospective buyers. Not only will you enjoy it while you remain in the home, but it’s not the type of renovation that will lose value over time. For example, suppose you do a complete overhaul of your kitchen utilizing the most popular trends of the day for colors, materials, and so on. If you don’t sell within a few years of your upgrades they will become outdated, negating some of the value and reducing your return on investment. Not so with a garage. Carports and workspace are utilitarian and they will remain useful indefinitely. Since you won’t be going much further than a concrete foundation and basic drywall there are no materials to get outdated. This means the garage will virtually retain the same value for as long as the structure holds up.

Weigh the pros and cons of adding a garage addition to your home

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Weigh the pros and cons of a garage addition

Now, the problem is that a garage simply won’t show the same return on investment that other upgrades might. If you add two new parking spaces to the garage you’re certainly making the property more useful and attractive to the average buyer. But you’re also reducing the size of the yard, for example. And you aren’t necessarily giving them something that they need. They could just as easily park their cars on the street or in the driveway, although they would likely prefer structure to stave off the elements.

Drivers know they can get discount online insurance quotes rather than going to big name providers, and homeowners know that they can pay less for the house next door if you jack up your asking price to cover the cost of a garage addition. So you might want to weigh the pros and cons before you get started. If you plan to use the garage yourself for several years, you’ll get some use value out of it for sure. But if you’re planning to sell in the near future and you’re looking to do some upgrades to improve both the value of your home, this may be one project to leave to the buyer.

For more garage ideas on Stagetecture, click here.