Garage Size

[fclaridge]

Hi all, I recently built my new shop/garage. 48x30x12. The 48' wall is the front of the building and I have 2 12' wide by 10' tall and slide apart. I had a new property appraisal done and the appraiser called my building a 2 car garage. Because it only has 2 doors. Does this sound like a correct description?

 

[pmiranda]

12' is kinda narrow to get more than one car through. If it makes you feel better, the appraisal on my house which has a 3rd bay behind the right side is only 2 car, even though we keep 3 cars in it.

 

[ducksface]

An outbuilding, no matter the size GENERALLY gets
No Added Value
Written next to the appraisal line items.


If you can't drive two cars side by side through the door, it's a one car bay.
It's bays that count, not how you can stack them.

 

[Don1357]

How many dedicated spots for parking you have in your garage? I would push back on that one. I think my local mall parking garage has two entrances, you would be hard pressed to call it a two car garage

Having said that a lot of these terms are pretty arbitrary. When I built my workshop in Maryland it added squat to the value of the house as it was considered an accessory building, and I already had a carport... My current house had a narrow attached one car garage. I turned that into another room and built my large garage/workshop detached. The fact that I eliminated the attached garage meant that my building, through no other effort, graduated from being another 'accessory building' of little value to being a detached garage, with all the honors and value the title confers.

 

[fclaridge]

OK, thank you all. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[Aaron_W]

How many dedicated spots for parking you have in your garage? I would push back on that one. I think my local mall parking garage has two entrances, you would be hard pressed to call it a two car garage

Having said that a lot of these terms are pretty arbitrary.

Yep, my house has 5 "bedrooms" but on paper it is only a 2 bedroom, because they don't consider rooms without a closet a bedroom. It is an older home built when free standing wardrobes were common. I'm pretty sure the house was originally built without indoor plumbing too, so clearly the house has been upgraded over the past 110 years.
It would be tough to sell a no bedroom, no bathroom house these days.

 

[larry_g]

Why is the appraiser doing the appraisal? If getting ready to sell then discuss it with him. If for tax reasons then shut up. What works in your favor in this instant is what you need to think about.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[ZRX61]

It's standard to count a garage as *two car* if it has two single bay doors, no matter how big it might be (within reason).
If you push to have it counted as more than two spaces you will end up paying more property tax... I assume you don't actually want to pay more taxes?

 

[Moss]

An outbuilding, no matter the size GENERALLY gets
No Added Value
Written next to the appraisal line items.


If you can't drive two cars side by side through the door, it's a one car bay.
It's bays that count, not how you can stack them.

I agree with this, In a bank appraisal outbuildings generally don't even count.

 

[nadogail]

If you have nothing to gain, why get into a fight?

 

[Redwngr]

In some areas, it would be called a 3 car tandem garage, if one of the bays is 2 cars deep.

 

[Daniel Dudley]

I think he was doing you a favor. My 30x 26 is a three car garage, with one single and one double garage door.

 

[CraigStu]

I think he was doing you a favor. My 30x 26 is a three car garage, with one single and one double garage door.

This could be correct. It may save you on property taxes. 7 yrs ago we bought a house that was listed as a 5 bedroom. Our realtor discovered that it had a 4 bedroom septic system so I questioned why the 5 bedroom listing. Our realtor said we could argue it, we could drop our offer for a full refund, because of the inaccurate listing. Wife and I were thinking that over and she asked if we liked the house. We both said he11 yes. She asked if it had been listed as a 4 bedroom would we have still looked at it. Another he11 yes. So she says look at the square feet, look at the layout and buy it if you like it. We did. My point is, if I were looking at your house for sale, I'd look at the size of your shop and not worry about how it was listed, 2 or 3 car, or how many doors it has.

 

[CombatNinja]

Echoing what has been said here. Not sure why you care what they are considering the building to be. Frankly, you are lucky the appraiser hit it as a "2-car detached" and gave you some value, especially if this thing is a metal building or pole barn. The only way I could get any value out of a 'shop' in my zip code is if it was stick built, finished to match the house and placed out back where it can't be seen from the curb. Anything else is going to get you $0 or even detract from the property value. Not sure what your area looks like but I bet 80% of the country's population lives in a similar situation.