Three Factors
How much do you discount for a one-car garage?
The short answer: ‘it depends.”
Specifically, I think that the three most important variables are:
One. What is the surrounding housing stock like?
In close-in, older Minneapolis neighborhoods, many homes have one car garages (still).
Detached, one car garages.
When that’s the standard, the discount isn’t very big.
Fifteen miles west, in newer, bigger Minnetonka and Plymouth homes, if there isn’t room for 3 cars (or more), the house’s selling price is going to suffer proportionately more.
Which leads to . . .
Two. How big is the house?
A 1,000 square foot house with 2 Bedrooms and 1 Bath is likely to appeal to one person, or maybe a couple.
In that case, one car space may be plenty.
One stall for a bigger home (over 2,500 FSF) is a much harder sell, unless . . .
Three. How easily can it be corrected?
When the lot is big enough — and the home’s design can integrate it — expanding the garage can be a smart move.
When that’s not an option . . . the discount is also bigger.
I can certainly think of other, relevant variables.
Such as: proximity to public transportation (and increasingly in the Twin Cities, bike trails like the Midtown Greenway); the Buyer’s lifestyle and personal preferences; and the possibility of creating a tandem garage (two car stalls in a row instead of side by side) if setback or design constraints preclude a standard two-car garage.
However, in the final analysis, the right discount is . . . whatever it takes to the sell the home in question.
See also, “That Garage is HOW Big?!?” ; “Not “Fessing to a Tandem Garage“; “Double-Car for a Double-Car Garage?”; and, “The Trouble With Tuck Under’s.”
