What to do with a converted garage?

It is hard to say what to do with the former garage without knowing what rooms the rest of the house has.  Is it a single car garage or a double?  It might make a wonderful office or a media room depending on the size of the new room and other rooms in the house.

Vicki has a great idea!! Game table, pub set, ottoman, cubes or even a desk and chair if the space is small and narrow.

Make it into a Gift Wrapping and Craft Room just like Candy Spelling did ! Seriously I believe the garage should be a garage when you sell. I know for a fact if I personally look for a house I want a 3 car garage and that would not fly! I hope they dont announce the garage in the listing

If a garage is not wanted/needed I would stage it either as a family/game room or office, depending what room the house lacked.

I'm with Sandra, living spaces and game rooms, offices are really missing in older homes and buyers want to eek out those places. IF you can...

Hi Tamara,

I recently had a situation like this. It was a 2000 square foot house with a single garage that was converted to an office space.It had been for sale for over 5 months and no offers with lots of viewings.

Most people in our climate (snowy and cold) want a double garage so this was a serious decision as to leave it as a finished office (it was finished professionally and looked great) or to convert it back to a garage.

I decided to leave it as an office and suggested that we stage the inside to make it more appealing hopefully balancing out the negative factor of no garage.

The client stripped the wallpaper in the foyer, master bedroom, main bath and painted in neutral colours.

Surprize, surprize it sold in 5 days.It seems that having a home office trumps having a garage even here in snowy, cold Barrie Ontario.

Another successful Staging story.

Let us know how long it takes to  sell your proprety as we all need statistics like this for our marketing.

 

Tamara, aren't media rooms a big deal in your part of Texas? When looking at models in the Forth Worth/Dallas area all of them had one dedicated Media/Theatre room. If the house needs a family room then I would go that way but like Vicki already commented, it really depends upon what the house already has to offer. In my area garage conversions, starting in 09, must be replaced with another garage or the county will not issue a permit for the conversion. I was flabbergasted with this. It just means that if people need the space and want a garage conversion they will do it without a permit. Fortunately most in our area have the space (acreage) but what a foolish county decision, although I believe that conversions are a bit foolish too.

In our area the garage is a must over a media room. I think that I would recommend (here) that they add a garage or a carport. Once the floor has been raised I doubt if it can be converted back to a garage. For staging maybe having it as a media room would be great OR a pool room

A few years ago our Great Lakes IAHSP chapter did a charity project in an area that was not used to having issues with selling homes. They had converted the garage to bedrooms and baths. There were restrictions on street parking so 99% of us agreed that it would have been better to have converted the space back into a garage. If a garage has been converted then I would make a portion of it a game room or man cave and show a portion for a garage. Remodeling and updating garages is a big trend, so I can see a game room as a big seller.

Perfect entertainment room or bonus space for multiple uses and let the buyer decide. That is very interesting.

Office or playroom comes to mind first. Playroom can be for children OR grown ups. Adding a card table and chairs for grownups would be nice because you cannot rent a pool table which would better. If the house does not have a family room with a TV use that space for that and keep the LR formal

Phyllis Pafumi

Hi fellow Texan Stager! Depends on the number of available bedrooms and the location of the house. If there is a closet & bath-it could be utilized as another bedroom. In the suburban areas of Houston, a four bedroom house will sell much faster than three bedrooms.