How important is a garage? 12 December 2010 at 6:10PM in House buying, renting & selling 46 replies 6.7K views

chris8

House been on market over a year now, was sold, fell thru, couple of offers not accepted by us. Am now fed up of showin people round. There was little negative feedback but a couple of people said that for a 4/5 bed house they would have expected more space downstairs. We have a thru lounge and a large kitchen/diner having knocked down a wall between original kitchen and bottom half of tandem garage. Just done what will be my last viewing this week, if no offer then we're taking it off market. Need then to decide do we just re-do kitchen units, which do need doing and reorganise space or do I take on board comments and increase space which we could quite easily do by converting garage and make a mega big kitchen/diner/tv chill out place. I don't want to extend out back as it would leave garden small and out of proportion with rest of house. Parking on drive for 3/4 vehicles so garage space not needed. But will losing garage devalue house if we decide to put on market again in couple of years? What do people think?

Tiddlywinks

I wouldn't get rid of the garage as I would expect one with that size of house - I would want to use it as a bit of storage and to do some DIY - you've already said that the garden isn't that big so may not really support a shed / workshop. If no garage then where would all the tools etc be stored?

Do you have a separate dining area? That is always important to me as I do not like kitchen / diners (unless it's for breakfast). With friends around etc I like to eat away from the cooking area (and all the noise / mess / chaos that cooking sometimes creates).

Just providing a "mega big kitchen/diner/tv chill out place" may not help sell the property - that sort of open plan space is my idea of hell to be honest.

Could it be that the buyers are expecting a second reception room? How about a small conservatory which could be used as a formal dining area / second reception etc?

LilacPixie

for a 4/5 bed house i would expect a garage but TBH wouldn't expect to put my car in it

Doshwaster

The previous owners of my 2-bed semi converted the garage into a dining room. They did a good job and I'm sure it has added value to the house - there's ample parking on the driveway and besides almost nobody I know keeps their car in the garage.

Then again, with a 4-5 bed house and 2-3 reception rooms I'd probably expect a garage. With a smaller house I think the space is better used for an extra room.

bikerfrenzy

i'd be lost without mine and would never buy a large family house without a garage

chris_m

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

away from the cooking area (and all the noise / mess / chaos that cooking sometimes creates).

Have you been peeking in through my kitchen window?
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Jinx

In a 4/5 bed house I would keep the garage. For that size house you could easily have 3-5 cars depending on grown up children (or a petrol head hubby like mine). Even if its not used much it ticks a box..... I agree with the other poster who said a big area is not their cup of tea, they can be hard to split into usable areas and are a nightmare to heat!

I would get some advice from your estate agent re what you need to do. The one thing that sold my house to me is the sunroom - adds more value than a conservatory (tho costs more), it gives additional flexibility, we use it as a 2nd lounge normally but for family dos it becomes a large dining room....

Tiddlywinks

chris_m wrote: »

Have you been peeking in through my kitchen window?
:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

It's that awful moment where you have to scrape the burnt bits off and slap something on top to make it look OK - how do you do that with your guests sitting behind you having a glass of vino and waiting to be delighted?

Gawd, when I've got people round my kitchen is like a frenzied madhouse that I don't want to share - when I come through that door to the dining room I want to preserve an illusion of 'adequacy' .

myhouse_2

You shouldn't need to make huge infrastructure changes to sell your property unless it's in dire need of maintenance. It may not help you sell the property anyway. Many people don't give honest feedback to vendors. Maybe it's the price? People won't care about many other things if the price is right.

MF2015

On a house that size it would need to have a garage, or room to build one for me to consider it. If you lose it then you have to think about all the potential customers you will be losing who need the storage for leisure stuff such as push bikes, sports equipment, childrens toys,weekend cars and working in.

silvercar

Our previous house was a 4 bed detached with a car port but no garage. Didn't bother us. I would rather an extra or larger living room than a garage. This house has a garage and its now full of junk, junk that we would have got rid of had we not had the garage.

Then again we particularly wanted an in - out driveway (carriageway drive in estate agent speak, but that sounds to posh), and wouldn't have considered anywhere without.