Convert a garage to a bedroom in a short term rental?

[Quentin Moore]

I see in many short term rental listings that the garage is being "converted" into a game room. Does anyone have any thoughts on purchasing a 3 BR house and really converting the garage into 1 or 2 additional bedrooms?

[Matt Nico]

Originally posted by @Anna Buffkin:

For a long time, garage conversions were one my deal breaker list.  I finally brought a house with a garage conversion because the deal was too good to pass up.  I will say, they garage conversion was the source of endless headaches despite being permitted albeit many years ago.  It had a fake fireplace in it.  We tore it out to add to the the usable square footage of the room and found asbestos.    We also torn out a deck that wasn't structurally that apparently change the way water flowed away from the house when it rained.  Suddenly the garage started getting water in it.  Thankfully this was before the new flooring was in and easily remedied by the contractor but still a pain.  The house was on a crawl space. We had a water pipe break and flood the room.  

While I won't say this is the last garage conversion house I will buy, it is definitely a red flag I would price into future deals.  

Also note, this is my "cursed" Murphy's law house.  Anything that can go wrong will go wrong at this house.  I wrote a post about it a while back and probably need to update my cursed house post.  

 Anna,

It sounds like you had a tough time with the Garage build.

I just want to say that I love the "Murphy's Law" comment. I cracked up laughing when I read it...haha.

-Matt