Include The Garage In Your Home Search
When it comes to home shopping, it's easy to concentrate on the most common aspects of a home such as the number of bedrooms & bathrooms, the home's finishes, and the kitchen and appliances. What's somewhat easy to overlook during the shopping process is the garage (assuming the shopping is being done where garages are part of the purchase). Listings often have the garages listed in terms of the number of cars they can hold, and while visiting homes for showings buyers many times only glance in the garage area.
Let's take a closer look at garages and how they can differ. You might just look a little more closely at the next showing you attend.
Here's a question: How big is a garage? Most people will probably answer something like 1-car, 2-car, etc., but even though a garage appears to hold that number of cars, will it? That may partially depend on what else will be in the garage, and what type of vehicles you own.
Garages can vary substantially in their actual dimensions. Some may hold two family-size cars, but perhaps not two trucks. They may hold two small sports cars, but not two SUVs. That's assuming we're talking about a garage with nothing else in it which may be how yours will be. Others may need to put additional items in their garage like mowers, yard equipment, bicycles, strollers, camping equipment, etc. Another thing to consider is what else is already in a garage. Some home layouts will have water heaters in the garage which can consume some of its square footage. Additionally, some garages require steps leading to the home. These too can consume some of the garage's space.
Here are some things that may help you look differently at garages during your home visits:
- In addition to the number of car capacity of a garage, actually measure it to determine the sq.ft. it includes
- Compare the garage dimensions to the vehicles you own
- Account for shelving or storage that you may want to install. This often will subtract several feet from the dimension.
- If the garage has stairs leading to the home, consider that relative to how often you'll travel those stairs and carry items into the home (i.e. grocery shopping).
- Look for things that are installed in the garage that may affect your use. Items like water heaters, central vac systems, and stairs that may consume some of the square footage.
- Check the garage ceiling height for options of over-head storage
- Evaluate the number of garage doors for your way of living. Garages can include doors that are 2-car widths and doors that are 1-car widths. Using multiple 1-car width doors means you'll have a post between them. If you're a project person and often move wide items into your garage, your preference may be to have a garage configured with wider doors.
- Consider if you regularly move recreational vehicles in and out. Vehicles such as boats, trailers, quads, etc. That too may affect the layout and size garage you desire.
- Calculate your required garage capacity. This not only includes how many cars you WANT in the garage, but also how many cars MUST be in the garage. Some HOAs require that all cars must be parked inside. Some HOAs also regulate the parking of recreational vehicles. Think about this not only now, but in the future. If you have children that will soon have cars, compare that scenario with any parking requirements of the HOA and see how that compares with any garage/home that you're considering.
These are a few tidbits that may help you evaluate the garages during your home search. While visiting homes, walk the garage and compare it to how you live.
