Better to move vs build pricey garage?

[Twitchy15]

We bought a 1960s older home in 2017 within our budget trying to be relatively smart financially. It is pretty small ~ 1200 sq foot main and upper floor which is fine but the basement is very small ~ 400 sq feet just a living room and furnace room. So no bedroom or bathroom we do have crawlspace storage. We have seen houses for sale with the same layout that create bedrooms or bathrooms but the space is to small to work well. We also have very little good storage areas.. crawl space sucks dusty and no fun going down in it lol.

House was cheap because previously owner did not do much and has no garage. Since we have done things roughly 40,000$ in improvements (windows,furance,AC, radon,concrete pad in backyard and new fence) but still could use some other work nothing urgent.

I've wanted a garage for years but we have a significant slope in the backyard. So if a 24x24 garage is ~$35,000 ours would probably be 50-60 grand basic package.

Recently came into some money so it would be possible to build it but not sure if it is the best choice now. It will raise the value but not by as much as it will cost. Not sure if it may be smarter to take the money and just move and find a slightly larger home with a garage already.

Issue is prices have gone up a good amount..interest rates.. I personally prefer older more centrally located homes as my wife also takes transit to work. We also have a baby on the way! So with the way everything is I think staying here in the short term makes sense its relatively cheap considering raising costs of everything.


TLDR smaller cheap home build expensive garage soon and lose money potentially when we upgrade down the road. Don't build garage and upgrade sooner larger home with garage already with the money.

[Northendzone]

i have no direct guidance; however, i think i'd mentally be in teh same spot as where yous eem to be.

My only suggestion would be - don't go and start looking at homes just because as that sets you down a path of buying.

good luck

[Fuzz]

We were in the same spot as you, and I built mine. We went 10 years without, until the time was right. If you like the house and neighbourhood, I wouldn't worry as much about re-claiming the value from the cost, do what works for you. Over a long enough time I don't think it will matter. If you can do some stuff yourself you can save a lot of money.

[photon]

If you plan to move at any point and if the garage is going to cost more than the value it adds it'd have to be REALLY important to me to justify it.

Think of it in terms of cost vs value. If the garage is going to cost $15,000 more than the value it adds, is it worth $15,000 to you?

You have a baby on the way, and say you have another in 4 years, so max 4 years before you really will want to start looking.

Is it worth an extra $312 a month, every month, for the pleasure of adding a garage?

Or if you have another in 2 years, $614 a month?

Gonna be there 15 years? Then do it, who cares at that point.

Maybe you can do other things to make life without a garage easier to live with. Remote starters on all the cars.

[bizaro86]

For me the big question is how long you see yourself staying. If the garage keeps you in that house for 10+ years I'd build it.

But if you're likely to move in a couple of years anyway (eg because more kids, whatever) then I'd probably do the move now and let someone else deal with the building project.

[Amethyst]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

For me the big question is how long you see yourself staying. If the garage keeps you in that house for 10+ years I'd build it.

But if you're likely to move in a couple of years anyway (eg because more kids, whatever) then I'd probably do the move now and let someone else deal with the building project.

This. When I built my garage, I didn't worry about whether or not I would get the money back. I planned to live here long-term and I wanted storage / no more clearing snow off my car in the mornings.

[PaperBagger'14]

Bizarro is bang on, move if you feel you may need a new place within a short time frame, build if you'll be there 10+ years.

A lot of the construction of a garage can be done yourself, this is not complicated stuff for the framing, siding, roofing, windows.

When I built mine I was able to do everything except the concrete pad and garage door. I spent about $15000 on it (10 years ago).

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by Northendzone

i have no direct guidance; however, i think i'd mentally be in teh same spot as where yous eem to be.

My only suggestion would be - don't go and start looking at homes just because as that sets you down a path of buying.

good luck

I constantly look at houses for sale since we bought just to see what’s out there prices whatever. Looking at houses for sale now makes me not want to move at all actually lol. Because we want a more central location that’s not to expensive it’s slim picking.

Plus prices have went up a lot compared to similar houses I’ve seen last 1-2 years . So looks like it’s a bad time to buy anyway prices are still high and interest rates are high.


1-2 years ago there was a nice big bungalow fully renovated 3000 sq foot total they were asking 570 sold 535 house would probably be 600-650 now

[Enoch Root]

I can't believe how flippantly people are saying move. It's not like moving doesn't also have costs. Depending on your price range obviously, moving will cost $20 - $50k or so.

Sure, a garage will cost that much, but it will increase the value of your home by close to the cost of the build.

When you factor those two things, the garage is likely the cheaper way to go.

More importantly, and to the point, adding the garage is life-changing with respect to living convenience.

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

We were in the same spot as you, and I built mine. We went 10 years without, until the time was right. If you like the house and neighbourhood, I wouldn't worry as much about re-claiming the value from the cost, do what works for you. Over a long enough time I don't think it will matter. If you can do some stuff yourself you can save a lot of money.

I remember I followed your summer of garage thread quite a bit had lots of good ideas in it.

That is kind of where I am at we could have bought a bigger nicer house to begin with but we’re trying to be conservative. I have wanted a garage for 5 years now and don’t want to be 40-50 by the time I get one.

Do I really need a garage? No but street parking sucks. I have this massive portion of sloped yard that is the ####s to maintain.

So sheltered/ warm parking, storage space for outdoor or just whatever in general since we have so little storage space at our house. Would be easier to take car of vehicles cleaning whatever.

I would like to keep my vehicles in better condition if possible as well.

So yeah that’s the issue house layout isn’t super ideal but we could be here another 10 years if we wanted but who knows. Currently without extra payments could be paid off at ~ 51

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

For me the big question is how long you see yourself staying. If the garage keeps you in that house for 10+ years I'd build it.

But if you're likely to move in a couple of years anyway (eg because more kids, whatever) then I'd probably do the move now and let someone else deal with the building project.

This makes sense so we’ll have to just think on it. Would have to wait until next summer anyway.

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I can't believe how flippantly people are saying move. It's not like moving doesn't also have costs. Depending on your price range obviously, moving will cost $20 - $50k or so.

Sure, a garage will cost that much, but it will increase the value of your home by close to the cost of the build.

When you factor those two things, the garage is likely the cheaper way to go.

More importantly, and to the point, adding the garage is life-changing with respect to living convenience.

In one way we don’t really want to move never sold a house and bought at the same time.. sounds stressful. Realtor costs and looking at houses for sale it’s so hard to find something we like.. the whole point of moving again is looking for a close to perfect house not another one that needs a lot of work. Currently my wife can get downtown like 25-35 mins and walk to the bus stop super simple and would like to keep it relatively simple for her.

The kind of house we would want that is more renovated costs are quite high. So kind of sucks to increase our mortgage by 100-200k probably. Currently we will pay it off by 51 depressing to change that to much lol

House is okay but you can’t change the space we just wish it was slightly bigger we don’t want a massive two storey 2000+ sq foot plus basement house . But something like a 1200 sqfoot bungalow nice yard garage and 800~ sq foot basement.

I was pricing out buying a 600-650 house which is probably close to what we would need to spend which is already insane to me. But probably best to wait probably not ideal for wife to be on may leave with super increased housing costs

[Fuzz]

If you are going to build next summer, spend the winter researching all the things like property line setbacks, eaves projections, elevations, utilities(like who to contact and how much lead time). If you aren't doing it yourself you still may want to know these things when you are shopping for a contractor. If you are on a steep hill the biggest expense will be concrete, but it also means fewer walls so easier to DIY.

If possible, make get 100A to the garage to wire for EV's. I had to move my overhead to the house as it was in the way of the garage, so it made sense to do 200A to the garage, then underground to the house with 100A off of that. You want to know this stuff before pouring concrete. And if you want heat, get the trench for the gas line dug at the same time.

[tvp2003]

Related question — at what point is renting a storage unit actually economical? I mean, it’s not as convenient, and if it’s just holding junk then it probably isn’t, but is there a point where seasonal stuff, tools, and other things you don’t require on a regular basis (or only on special occasions) could be stored versus taking up space in a basement or garage (if it existed)?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

I can't believe how flippantly people are saying move. It's not like moving doesn't also have costs. Depending on your price range obviously, moving will cost $20 - $50k or so.

Sure, a garage will cost that much, but it will increase the value of your home by close to the cost of the build.

When you factor those two things, the garage is likely the cheaper way to go.

More importantly, and to the point, adding the garage is life-changing with respect to living convenience.

I don't think anyone is being flippant about moving. It's a hassle and expensive. Much like building a garage is a hassle and expensive.

Ideally you'd only do one of them.

So if the garage makes the existing house a keeper definitely do it. But if they're going to undertake moving (with all the hassle/cost) anyway, the I wouldn't bother with the garage as I agree they wouldn't get the $ out.

Nobody but the OP (+spouse) knows the exact details here so anything more than "here's how I'd think about it" is futile advice anyway.

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

If you are going to build next summer, spend the winter researching all the things like property line setbacks, eaves projections, elevations, utilities(like who to contact and how much lead time). If you aren't doing it yourself you still may want to know these things when you are shopping for a contractor. If you are on a steep hill the biggest expense will be concrete, but it also means fewer walls so easier to DIY.

If possible, make get 100A to the garage to wire for EV's. I had to move my overhead to the house as it was in the way of the garage, so it made sense to do 200A to the garage, then underground to the house with 100A off of that. You want to know this stuff before pouring concrete. And if you want heat, get the trench for the gas line dug at the same time.

I have a big garage note I’ve been keeping track of all kinds of stuff to remember good ideas I’ve read or seen. Wish I knew if we would stay here for sure because if I’m uncertain I will probably just build a basic garage but depending on cost we have a lot of space could easily have a parking pad triple car garage and if it was two storeys for storage or whatever the second storey would be level with the house that’s how sloped the yard is. Like needs 8 foot plus retaining wall

[Flames_Gimp]

i built a 22x20 for about 20k of course that was 2014 when a stud was $4, but i hired friends to build it and I did the plans/permits saving $.

[Twitchy15]

Originally Posted by Flames_Gimp

i built a 22x20 for about 20k of course that was 2014 when a stud was $4, but i hired friends to build it and I did the plans/permits saving $.

I was planning on hiring a company to do mostly everything. I can do some relatively simple things but have no experience with building / carpentry. Also the need for a 8 foot retaining wall designed by a structural engineer makes things complicated to begin with.

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by Twitchy15

I have a big garage note I’ve been keeping track of all kinds of stuff to remember good ideas I’ve read or seen. Wish I knew if we would stay here for sure because if I’m uncertain I will probably just build a basic garage but depending on cost we have a lot of space could easily have a parking pad triple car garage and if it was two storeys for storage or whatever the second storey would be level with the house that’s how sloped the yard is. Like needs 8 foot plus retaining wall

I love the idea of triple car garage. If it was me I would want to build the big garage. I think the most important thing is going to be how does your house work for your new, growing family.

I think I would wait and see how it goes with the new addition to you family, see if your house works for you and your wife with the baby (and think if it will work with a second, third child if that’s what you choose to do).

Enjoy!!! You have a lot to look forward to!!

[powderjunkie]

Personally I've never seen a massive benefit from having a detached garage, but maybe it's just that the only one I ever had was kinda gross/crappy. Attached garage is super convenient, especially when trying to get out of the house with kids.

The way to make it really work financially might be to go all the way to a laneway suite if possible? Obviously that's a much bigger kettle of fish.