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How a Garage Can Add Value to Your Home
Potential homebuyers often put together a list of "must haves" to help them narrow down their search while looking for houses. These lists detail what a future homebuyer could not live without - things like a washing machine, a pool, a fireplace, or air conditioning. Everyone's list is different, but most include one important thing: a garage. Is no garage a deal breaker for potential homebuyers? Will adding a garage increase your property value? What can you do to improve your existing garage to boost your property value? Here we discuss ways a garage can impact the sale of your home, and what you should know moving forward putting your home on the market.
Is No Garage A Deal Breaker?
Most modern home buyers demand parking, but do they need a covered attached or detached garage? In many cases, yes, but specialists say the answer depends on a number of factors including the neighborhood, value and size of the home, and the area's climate. Homebuyers would likely pass up on a home without a garage in a neighborhood where most homes do have a garage. Additionally, homes in colder climates or in areas with frequent rain and snow may be tough to sell without a garage. Inexpensive homes may sell without a garage, especially because a new buyer can add a garage inexpensively, but most middle of the road to high end homes are expected to have at least a two car garage.
Which Garage Style Should You Choose?
Building a new garage or remodeling your preexisting structure can boost your property value and provide your home with some additional curb appeal. As winter finally comes to an end, many homeowners are pursuing their dreams of a perfect garage. With the wide variety of different styles available, there is no better time to check out a new garage, but choosing which style to go with can be challenging. When deciding what type of garage to build, there are a variety of factors to consider. Should you choose a tried a true gable or hip style garage, or unleash your creative side and pursue a custom garage? The possibilities may seem endless, but the specialists at Blue Sky Builders, Inc. are here to help.
What to Consider When Choosing a Garage Style?
Different garage styles suit different purposes, so it's important that you choose a style that fits your needs. To help with your decision making, we recommend you consult with a garage specialist who can help you make the smartest choice. Ask yourself the following questions:
Ways to Deal with Your Neighbor’s Rundown Property
So, you are about ready to sell your house. You have done everything possible - cleaned, organized, remodeled, repaired - to ensure you get the best offers on your home. There is one tricky area, however, that you do not have as much control over; your neighbors. While your neighbors crumbling garage across the street may not have bothered you, potential home buyers could be scared away. How do you stop the neighborhood eyesore from lowering your property value? While there is no single, simple solution to the problem, here are five potential tactics you can use to encourage your neighbor to tidy up their property.
Talk to Your Neighbor
This strategy may seem pretty basic, but you would be surprised how many people are simply unwilling to have a difficult conversation. While asking your neighbor to clean up their mess may be challenging, there are strategic ways to soften the blow. Try saying, "You know, the more my house sells for, the more your house will sell for if you ever decide to move." Add another nice touch like a bottle of wine to show your neighborly spirit. If direct conversation is hard, send over a very polite note and a gift.
2016 Garage Trends You Need to Know About
While we might not admit it all the time, most of us care about our neighbors' perceptions of our homes. We manicure our lawns, keep our sidewalks shoveled, and maintain our homes' curb appeal, just to ensure we stand out, or at least fit in with our neighbors. It makes sense that many homeowners this year are focusing on one of the main focal points of their homes: their garage.
The garage is often the largest room within a home, and the garage door is the largest entry way into most homes. A little garage updating can go a long way to make your home stand out from the crowd and boost your property value. If you are hoping to make your garage the talk of the block this year, stay up-to-date with these 2016 garage trends.
Garage Door Trends
Today's homeowners only have one chance to make a first impression, so many are focusing on adding a little pow to their garage doors.
Doors Are Getting Bigger: Larger garage doors tend to stand out from the crowd, so many homeowners are going for bigger doors during homebuilding and remodeling. Larger doors allow for more creativity and can help increase curb appeal.
Wintertime Garage Safety Tips
Even the most insulated garages can prove hazardous in the winter. From carbon monoxide, to frozen garage doors, the average household garage can quickly become dangerous if left unchecked and unmaintained during the winter. If you are hoping to keep yourself and your family safe for the remainder of the season, pay attention to these common cold weather garage safety concerns.
What Is Safe to Store In a Garage during the Winter?
Most Americans use their garage for multiple purposes, with one of the most common being household storage. The garage is a perfect place to store those odds and ends items that did not find a permanent home inside the house, but what items are risky to leave out in the garage during cold months?
- Paint: People commonly store cans of paint in their garage, but both summer and wintertime conditions can damage paint. Cold temperatures will cause your paint to not last as long, and paint cans stored on cement floors tend to run faster than cans placed on a shelf or another surface.
Is Your Garage a Victim of Winter Damage?
Winter can be a lot of fun. The picturesque snow is perfect for bundling up and catching snowflakes, sledding, or skiing. For your garage, however, winter conditions can lead to damage. Snow, ice, and snow melting products are all capable of damaging your garage in many different ways. This winter, be on the lookout for a few potential ways snow and ice may be damaging your garage.
Your Garage Floor
Water damage to your garage flooring can lead to cracks and slippery patches that put you and your family at risk of falling. If you park your car within your garage, ice and snow can easily fall from your car and lead to built up pools of water left on your garage floor. Unfortunately, in many cases, water left on garage floors is not noticed soon enough, and if left over long periods of time, can lead to damage to the structure of your garage. Preventative measures can be taken, if done early enough in the year, but extensive winter damage to your garage floor may require repairs or replacement.
LED Lighting for Your Garage
It can happen to anybody. You pull up into your garage one evening, step out of your car, and reach for the light switch, only to discover that your overhead garage light has burned out. Even the tidiest of garages can be a bit creepy at night, and nobody wants to feel like they are trapped in a scene from a scary movie. Or, perhaps you are working on a project in your garage, but the dim fluorescent or incandescent lighting in your space is making completing the task difficult. If you are sick of dealing with lighting issues in your garage, consider switching to LED lighting. LED (light-emitting diodes) is one of today's fastest growing lighting technologies, and also one of the most energy efficient options you can choose to install. LED lights are simple to use, will brighten any space, and have a much longer life span than other lighting options.
Energy Efficient
LED is a highly energy efficient technology, and many believe that widespread LED use in America could radically change the amount of energy consumed each year. Most residential LEDs are significantly more energy efficient compared to other options. In fact, products labeled with an ENERGY STAR rating use at least 75 percent less energy than typical light bulbs. For homeowners, switching to LED lights can mean savings on their energy bills. Most users report a drop in their monthly energy bill when they made the switch to LED lighting. On average, one traditional incandescent light bulb costs $4.80 per year to operate. Fluorescent bulbs tend to cost around $1.20 per year, but by far the cheapest option is LED, with each LED light typically costing only $1.00 per year.
America’s Most Famous Garages
Modern American garages are a far cry from their 100-year-old predecessors. From their start as converted carriage houses used to store the automobiles of America's wealthiest citizens, garages have transformed into a household necessity that every home buyer has come to expect. No modern home is complete without at least a single car garage, and most of today's garages do more than simply store cars. From man-caves to apartments to home offices, garages are continuously remodeled, re-purposed, and reorganized to suit the many needs of American families. Life in the United States is centered around the automobile, so it makes sense that, over time, famous garages have popped up all across the country. American garages have been the birthplace of many Fortune 500 companies, provided an early studio for many of today's famous musicians, and have been used by wealthy Americans to house impressive car collections.Take a look at a few of America's most famous and impressive garages.
The Birthplace of Apple Inc.
A Brief History of American Garages
Garages have become an integral part of daily life in America. Many of us use our garage for a variety of purposes: storing our vehicles, working on projects, storing household items, and more. Some of America's most successful companies got their start in garages. Many of our favorite bands launched their careers from garages. Most people use our garage as the door to our homes, so it is hard to image a time when garages did not come standard with houses. In fact, today's modern garages are a far cry from their predecessors of the early 1900's. Do you know how garages came about in America? It all started with one incredible invention: the automobile.
The start of the 20th century brought with it some amazing advances in technology. Most importantly, the automobile started to gain popularity. At first cars were only available to society's elite, those who could afford the expensive inventions. Wealthy car owners soon realized that they needed a place to store their vehicles to protect them from the elements. Fortunately, automobile owners quickly realized that carriage houses, once used to house horses, buggies, and horse travel paraphernalia, could be easily repurposed. Entrepreneurs and those who owned carriage houses saw a great business opportunity. They opened their repurposed carriage houses to the public, and anyone who owned a car was able to rent a space in the house for somewhere around $15 to $20 per month. Renters got a reserved space in the carriage house, which was heated, cleaned, and maintained by the owner.
Protect Your Garage Floor from Winter Damage
Winter proofing your garage flooring may not be on the top of your mind, but it certainly will go a long way towards maintaining the look and safety of your garage. Winter snow and ice are easily tracked into garages by people and cars, leading to damaged concrete and dangerous slippery patches. Fortunately, there are a few easy and affordable ways to winterize your garage flooring and prevent any future damage. It is not too late to protect your flooring from winter weather this year, so try a few of these easy ideas.
Start with a Good Cleaning
Before trying any winterization tactics, be sure to give your garage floor a good scrubbing. Thoroughly clean the concrete, removing any contaminants that may have been spilled or left on the floor. After cleaning is a great time to make any repairs to your garage flooring that can not wait until spring.
Floor Mats
Floor mats are by far the easiest and quickest way to protect your garage flooring. Also known as floor contaminant mats, these mats are made to lay on the floor of your garage and collect any snow, ice, road salts, snow melt, or other deicing solutions that may be tracked in via your car or boots. Floor mats are easy to install. Simply lay down the mat over problem areas - places like where you park your cars or right in front of your garage door. The mats will absorb any water and collect any leftover debris, and are super simple to clean. Once winter is over, the mats can be conveniently rolled up and stored.
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