Am I crazy?

[Steve22629]

New member here. I just moved to the NC mountains, and the house I have doesn't have any kind of shop or garage. I wanted to add a detached garage to my house so I joined this forum for ideas. My problem is once I started looking into it it will cost me between $100-125k for a garage/shop due to slope of lot and covenants. I don't feel I will ever get that much out of it when I sell. The pricing in this area is just getting back to where it was when I bought the house 10 years ago. What I am considering doing is purchasing a smaller 900-1400sf ranch style house with open floor plan that is within 15 minutes from the house. My intentions are then gutting it and setting up as a woodshop.
Just wondering if this is a crazy idea, or a option that might make sense.
Sorry for being long winded.

 

[ddawg16]

First off....welcome.....

No...you are NOT crazy. Though I can't imagine having to go down the road to my garage/shop, if you get the property cheap....or at least cheaper than your new garage, then go for it.

But, before you pull the trigger....

We don't do garages for 'pay back' or investment. We do them for 'us'.

What is the new place going to cost? How much will you get out of it when you sell?

I'm willing to bet in terms of $$ in the long run, you are better off adding to your property.

Now if you want it so you can have a place to 'get away'....delete this thread NOW.

 

[drivesitfar]

STEVE: you'd need to give us a lot more details on size of your garage you were thinking of building and why it would cost that much. also having your shop 15 minutes from your house in a neighborhood or out in the country is a pain for one (ask me how i know and i'm 5 minutes from the one i lease) and security might be an issue too.

do you really like your existing house and especially the neighbors? your home could probably re replaced fairly easily, but good neighbors are hard to find. maybe post up a few pictures of your building site and more details on your garage and some of the maybe so called hidden costs (permits, ground prep, engineering and special permits, septic, ...)

i'm in a sort of similar situation and feel some of your pain and i lease space. is that an option besides ripping out $40,000 worth of improvements inside an existing home? or can you find good neighbors with a place that either has a garage/shop already or room to build one that won't cost as much.

for the costs you are talking about for a shop/garage it better be huge and steel framed or like you say has a lot of prep costs.

devil is in the details. also do you have wife and kids that don't want to move that might influence your decision?

good luck and if you are crazy you came to the right place cause a lot of us here think garage first and house second.

 

[Steve22629]

I would much rather have my shop within walking distance. But my old shop was about 20 minutes from the house so I'm already used to that. As for the house I'm looking at, the asking price is $99k and the tax value is $128k. From the outside looks to be in pretty decent shape. The ad says that there is water damage on the kitchen floor, so I need to determine how much of a problem it is. The house is located in a ski resort community with house values between low 100's to 750,000. I feel comfortable that it will at least hold its valueand should appreciate. Once I look at the inside and check overall condition if everything checks out it looks like it makes sense to me.

 

[1/2 Cup]

steve, hello and welcome to the GJ

Crazy, never we are here to help..

Can I respectively suggest you put your location in your profile, being a global forum it really helps our members assimilate.

As always enjoy.

 

[ajohno]

Welcome Steve.

 

[The Cobbler]

Welcome aboard .
how would the local town or government react to it being a work shop and not a residence?

 

[1/2 Cup]

Steve, done well..

 

[Richard Cranium]

steve, welcome to the group,
As far as being crazy, has your mom had you tested? (Reference from Big Bang theory)
I would much rather have my shop close to my house then across town.

 

[tjdux]

So are you trying to buy a different house and move or buy a different house and turn it into a shop and remain living where you currently are? My read if original post is the latter suggesting no move just a second home that will be the shop.

Its not crazy. I have thought about it. But here in podunk cheap homes are 10 to 20k (even then many have crappy 1 car garage)

One big consideration is as soon as you rip into the house it's not a house anymore so its value will tank hard. Even here in podunk homes that people run out of money during a remodel and sell homes without working kitchen and bathrooms sell for less money than the dirt they sit on. 2 to 6k sale value. Your milage may vary.

Is there any empty lots, small poor location comercial lots, or lots with no house but garage available in your area? If you havent looked in those options I would check it out.

No idea what your current home is worth and what your situation is but if you're this worried about resale value then maybe you should consider selling your current home, forget spending 100+ k and find some property that really works for you Probably something more rural....

So million dollar question? Why no pic to back up this 100k site level issue? There a cliff in your backyard? Landmines maybe lol.

One poster mentioned what would the city think or code violations blah blah... if you DIY theres no inspection needed so i would guess the city being none the wiser wouldn't care. Neihbors may care but as long as your not doing anything illeagal it won't matter. Your big red tape issue will be insurance. Insurance may have some issues using a space differently than intended.

Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703

 

[sonoronos]

In your neck of the woods, 120k would buy you a brand new house. come on. It should be painfully obvious that building a garage is about two steps ahead of where you are right now. The builders know this and that's why they are trying to bleed you of your money.

I see this all the time in eastern tennessee - people who spend all their money on weird, useless **** when they should be spending it on a bulldozer and a few weekends of cutting their property. But they don't, so nothing ever gets done.

You should be researching using a bulldozer to cut your entire property flat.

Think about building a garage after you make your property usable, not before.

 

[Steve22629]

My wife won't let me get a bulldozer.

 

[Richard Cranium]

I tried to rent one, once upon a time and they would not rent to the public.

 

[sonoronos]

you don't buy bulldozers, you rent them. if you can't get a bulldozer rent the biggest backhoe you can get. if you can't rent a big enough backhoe, then find someone who will grade your property flat for a good price.

 

[tjdux]

you don't buy bulldozers, you rent them. if you can't get a bulldozer rent the biggest backhoe you can get. if you can't rent a big enough backhoe, then find someone who will grade your property flat for a good price.

Hence i asked about a photo of the back yard just to see what were talking about here.

Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703

 

[tjdux]

I tried to rent one, once upon a time and they would not rent to the public.

Where did you go to rent one? Its my experience that US rentals will rent basically anything to anyone who can afford the deposit. We rented a very large track hoe excavator to rip out trees and demolish buildings.

you don't buy bulldozers, you rent them. if you can't get a bulldozer rent the biggest backhoe you can get. if you can't rent a big enough backhoe, then find someone who will grade your property flat for a good price.

Signiture; Check out my garage progress http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=352703

 

[theoldwizard1]

...I just moved to the NC mountains, and the house I have doesn't have any kind of shop or garage. I wanted to add a detached garage to my house so I joined this forum for ideas. My problem is once I started looking into it it will cost me between $100-125k for a garage/shop due to slope of lot and covenants.

In-laws lived in Franklin. Any piece of real estate that was even remotely close to being "flat" was $$$ !