In our Bethesda neighborhood, few homes have garages. And many that did have small, one-car garages, do not now (already converted). The knocked-down houses that are now mcmansions do have garages, but the older, well-built homes, do not. That wouldn't detract buyers who want to live here (which are numerous).

Where will the bikes go? Is there room for a shed or something else for bikes? I would not be worried about having to leave cars out, but I would need a place for 4 bikes (which is a lot).

No, sell and move.

No, never.

I would not. Houses without garages on property somewhere were filtered out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a 1960s colonial house in the DC suburbs. Estimated value is $900k right now. We need more space and are debating about moving (don’t really want to) or doing a huge renovation where we convert our small garage into a two store addition. House is 4 bedroom and 2.5 bathrooms. Would add an additional office, bathroom and bedroom over the space and then below would add a workout space and a mud room.

Would you buy a close to 4000 sq ft house with no garage?

In the suburbs? No. It will look cheap to park cars in the driveway or in the street.

Oh really? Tell that to my Bethesda street with the 2M+ houses. We all park on the street or in our tiny driveways.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Garages converted to house space are the worst. This was very common in California in the 90s and early 2000s (before the crash). They are rarely done well.

I think this is the bigger issue. When we were searching, we were okay with not having a garage. However, every garage conversion looked horrible. Maybe with the addition on top, OP will have better luck but the post conversion space always felt like a garage on the inside and looked out of place from the outside

This is the PP. We ultimately settled on a home with a small 1 car garage and it was very much the right decision. We can still fit the car in there but it also gives us additional flexibility for storage, extra freezer, and s space to tinker with bikes, crafts, home projects, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Garages converted to house space are the worst. This was very common in California in the 90s and early 2000s (before the crash). They are rarely done well.

I think this is the bigger issue. When we were searching, we were okay with not having a garage. However, every garage conversion looked horrible. Maybe with the addition on top, OP will have better luck but the post conversion space always felt like a garage on the inside and looked out of place from the outside

If you do a huge 2 story addition, why not add onto the garage? Or add a garage next to the addition?

No I wouldn't but I'm in the suburbs. I wouldn't buy a rowhouse in DC without a garage either (unattached in the alley is good or a parking spot with a roll up door is fine too).

My garage is more valuable to me than another bedroom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can u fit a shed?

Where do people put bikes, kayaks, tools?

Op - yes we have a shed in the backyard to fit bikes, tools, etc. lot is around 0.30 acres.

Then I think it’s fine.

Garages converted to house space are the worst. This was very common in California in the 90s and early 2000s (before the crash). They are rarely done well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How big is the current garage? You said small, but does that mean it’s only one-car?

Op here - yes small one car garage. We can’t even fit our car in there anymore (filled with bikes, etc). But we once upon a time could fit a small sedan or small suv

If the garage is not functional then I would lean towards converting. Todays car are bigger and a 60s sized one car garage isnt going to cut it anymore.

It’s very functional that’s why they can put their car in there

No. That was our first search criteria in our last house hunt. But my husband is a car guy and we use our garage for cars.

Agree that it depends on the norm in your neighborhood.
If you say that half the homes have converted theirs, you are likely fine re the re-sale market (and you enjoy the space in the meantime).

Now that we have a 2-car garage, I would hard pressed to go back. But, when we had a small colonial with a one car garage, it was entirely used as a shed and we too thought about converting it to a den and adding a BR/BA above it.

Here's one that's just a den. Does not seem to have impacted sales price/value one bit.

https://www.redfin.com/MD/Bethesda/5309-Glenwood-Rd-20814/home/10657550