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Old 03-16-2008, 12:26 AM
 
1,174 posts, read 6,945,845 times
Reputation: 1104

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I'm afraid that this question may be too broad in terms of different markets, but I'll ask it anyway. Here's the scenario:

I'm trying to value a property . . . and yes, I've talked to an agent but I'm trying to gather info to make my own decision.

The house is a SFH on 1/2 acre. It's 2800 sq ft in a semi-custom neighborhood. It's not a full production-type house, nor are any of the houses completely custom.

Anyway, the house was built with an attached 3 car garage in 2002. At that time it was purchased for $450,000. The same owners have been in the house since then.

In 2006, they built an oversized unattached 3 car garage on the property. It's not one of those metal buildings. Instead, it's stick-built and completely matches the house color, style and finish. I'm guessing it's about 1200 sq ft (39x30). It's also fully insulated and heated, but it is still just a garage with a concrete floor and garage doors on the front and back of the building.

The house is now on the market for a little over $700,000. The sold comps say that the house is severly overpriced if only the house is considered. Without the garage, I would say that is probably a little over the value of the house at the peak of the market a couple years ago.

The listed comps also place the house far above its current competition. A few of those houses have been on the market over 2 years.

All of those comparisons don't take into account the additional garage that was built on the property I'm asking about. Any of the other comps only had their attached 3-car garages and not an additional garage/workshop.

So, that's my problem. What's the seperate garage worth?

If the issue involved additional contiguous heated/finished living space on the home, I could easily compensate for it. However, that is not the case here. It may be heated, but it's not contiguous. It is also not finished living space because it is a garage and shop area.

Again, what's something like that worth? How does someone place a value on it when it's different than anything else in it's comparable area?

I should also say that the market for this area is "challenged." The current 60 day absorption rate is only 8%. There's also a 23 month supply of homes (all homes) and the sales above 700K are almost non existant. It's even slow in the 500-700 range, so recent sold comps are either pretty old or definately sparse.

BTW, if the garage were not involved, I'd probably put a post-bubble 2008 value on the house at around $550,000 +/- $25,000. I'm usually pretty good at valuing these things, but take that figure as you wish. At least it might help in giving a guess as to the additional value of the new garage.

Thanks for any insight.

Last edited by garth; 03-16-2008 at 12:34 AM..
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Old 03-16-2008, 07:47 AM
 
Location: Gilbert - Val Vista Lakes
6,069 posts, read 14,783,384 times
Reputation: 3876
To start with you may consider using the cost of construction method. It's probably pretty easy to get today's construction cost numbers, and then decide what garage is worth to you.
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Old 03-16-2008, 08:09 AM
 
Location: Woodbridge Twp NJ
316 posts, read 1,249,272 times
Reputation: 60
Default call an appraiser

Quote:
Originally Posted by garth View Post
I'm afraid that this question may be too broad in terms of different markets, but I'll ask it anyway. Here's the scenario:

I'm trying to value a property . . . and yes, I've talked to an agent but I'm trying to gather info to make my own decision.

The house is a SFH on 1/2 acre. It's 2800 sq ft in a semi-custom neighborhood. It's not a full production-type house, nor are any of the houses completely custom.

Anyway, the house was built with an attached 3 car garage in 2002. At that time it was purchased for $450,000. The same owners have been in the house since then.

In 2006, they built an oversized unattached 3 car garage on the property. It's not one of those metal buildings. Instead, it's stick-built and completely matches the house color, style and finish. I'm guessing it's about 1200 sq ft (39x30). It's also fully insulated and heated, but it is still just a garage with a concrete floor and garage doors on the front and back of the building.

The house is now on the market for a little over $700,000. The sold comps say that the house is severly overpriced if only the house is considered. Without the garage, I would say that is probably a little over the value of the house at the peak of the market a couple years ago.

The listed comps also place the house far above its current competition. A few of those houses have been on the market over 2 years.

All of those comparisons don't take into account the additional garage that was built on the property I'm asking about. Any of the other comps only had their attached 3-car garages and not an additional garage/workshop.

So, that's my problem. What's the seperate garage worth?

If the issue involved additional contiguous heated/finished living space on the home, I could easily compensate for it. However, that is not the case here. It may be heated, but it's not contiguous. It is also not finished living space because it is a garage and shop area.

Again, what's something like that worth? How does someone place a value on it when it's different than anything else in it's comparable area?

I should also say that the market for this area is "challenged." The current 60 day absorption rate is only 8%. There's also a 23 month supply of homes (all homes) and the sales above 700K are almost non existant. It's even slow in the 500-700 range, so recent sold comps are either pretty old or definately sparse.

BTW, if the garage were not involved, I'd probably put a post-bubble 2008 value on the house at around $550,000 +/- $25,000. I'm usually pretty good at valuing these things, but take that figure as you wish. At least it might help in giving a guess as to the additional value of the new garage.

Thanks for any insight.
Call an appraiser who knows the area check with your agent to see if he/she knows someone. But you right that is a big difference in price.
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Old 03-16-2008, 08:13 AM
 
Location: Halfway between Number 4 Privet Drive and Forks, WA
1,516 posts, read 4,591,647 times
Reputation: 677
Here in GA, an appraiser will value a stick built separate workshop/garage at about $3,000.

I would definately call an appraiser to see how they would value it. Could be different because it's heated, etc...
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Old 03-16-2008, 10:50 AM
 
Location: Marion, IN
8,189 posts, read 31,242,333 times
Reputation: 7344
As a buyer I would not consider that worth any extra as I have no need for a structure of that nature. If the lot is only 1/2 acre this most likely sucks up most of the usable yard. I would now go from being neutral to finding it to be a negative selling point.

I am sure there are buyers out there who would be very excited to see something like that. So I imagine it will all come down to the individual.
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Old 03-16-2008, 11:36 AM
 
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
6,957 posts, read 22,317,496 times
Reputation: 6471
The cost of the extra garage would be darn close to $10K in my county including all building permits. I'm assuming no plumbing, but it must have electricity.

As far as price goes, you already know about the willing seller and willing buyer part. The seller's motivation is going to play an important part in getting an offer of less than asking price accepted.
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Old 03-16-2008, 12:10 PM
 
Location: The Woods
18,358 posts, read 26,507,138 times
Reputation: 11351
It might turn off many buyers to have a garage taking up most of the yard. A half-acre isn't much land (I'm admittedly biased here because I consider 5 acres small but I think I'm right on this particular case) and to have most of it taken up with the garage and a house with additional garage space, would be a big negative on someone who wants a little yard space to enjoy and doesn't have a bunch of cars to store. There was a big garage (2 car not 3 but big given the tiny lot) built on the property of a house in my old neighborhood in a city in VT, when it sold, the first thing the buyers did was tear it down, and plant flower gardens there in its place. Just like swimming pools and all other such "improvements," many do not see them as such and instead see them as negative. You can't count on such things to add to the value of your property unless you find the right buyer. Now if a car collector is interested in the house it may be a selling point but you can't count on that...
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Old 03-16-2008, 12:23 PM
 
69,368 posts, read 64,135,461 times
Reputation: 9383
Quote:
Originally Posted by leavingbyron View Post
Here in GA, an appraiser will value a stick built separate workshop/garage at about $3,000.

I would definately call an appraiser to see how they would value it. Could be different because it's heated, etc...
Yes here its about $5,000 but.. the OP garage is 1200 sf, and heated, so the value of this is higher.. a good guess might be that the garage, if given a warehouse value to it, might be worth around $20,000
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Old 03-16-2008, 02:51 PM
 
Location: Gorham, Maine
1,973 posts, read 5,226,483 times
Reputation: 1505
Most posters have hit this on the head. This is now a niche house and the target market is very small. If you are the prospective buyer, I think you have a good idea as to the value of the house. If you are the seller, you're in for a long time on market.
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Old 03-16-2008, 03:06 PM
 
Location: The Big D
14,862 posts, read 42,890,363 times
Reputation: 5787
We NEED THAT garage BAD!!!!!!!!!! We have the 3 car attached and have several bids on building a detached 2 car garage w/ a room above for storage and future "man space" that will have a 1/2 bath heat & air. It will match the house brick and all along w/ windows, trim, etc. We don't have to pour too much concrete and ours will be smaller than the OP's and only 1 overhead garage door. Our lot is not a 1/2 acre but still large w/ a pool and se still have plenty of yard being we are on a culdesac.

The 4 bids range from $68K-$107K. We know that we won't get all of that out of the house when we do sell but it is rather something we WANT and we NEED!

For the new custom homes and semi-custom homes being built around us on larger lots they all tend to have a VERY LARGE detached garage in addition to the one attached. Guess too many car collectors round here
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