Daily Real Estate News | Tuesday, December 27, 2016
The garage is usually an afterthought, overstuffed with tools, seasonal supplies, and miscellaneous household goods. But more home owners are sprucing up the space, even seeking to transform it into a showpiece, according to The New York Times.
Real estate brokers say a finished garage adds value and may help improve potential buyers’ impressions of the home overall. “I don’t think you have to take it to the nines, where you have heated floors,” says Libbe Pavony, a real estate professional with Houlihan Lawrence in Briarcliff Manor, N.Y. “But the garage is a reflection on how you maintain your home in general. Some people take their old kitchen cabinets and attach them to the walls.”
Renovations can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to up to $50,000. For remodels, contractors say they’re installing drywall, custom cabinetry, wall-length storage systems, and new flooring. Organizers advocate the use of hooks to hang tools, bicycles, patio chairs, and ladders, with the idea being to get everything off the floor.
“It’s such a perfect example of conspicuous consumption and keeping up with the Joneses,” Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, a professor of public policy at the University of Southern California and the author of the forthcoming book, The Sum of Small Things: A Theory of the Aspirational Class, told The New York Times. “But there’s also a virtue of organization and cleanliness. Being organized shows that you are an upstanding citizen.”
The New York Times calls these garage renovations the “final frontier in remodeling.”
“The people who spend serious money on their garages are the ones who have already done everything else to the house, and they’ve got nice cars,” says Paul Greskovich, the owner of Garage Craft Interiors. “They suddenly realize that possibly the biggest room in the house is a debris field.”
Source: “Final Frontier in Home Renovation: Giving Garages a Makeover,” The New York Times (Dec. 26, 2016)
“Copyright National Association of REALTORS®. Reprinted with permission.”