First Flip, Question about Odd Layout

[Michael S.]

I've grown a little tired of wholesaling and I'm ready to give rehabbing a try. I have a 3bed/2bath brick ranch in a good area under contract and am set to close soon. I got it at 70k, ARV is around 155k -- will be putting 35k or so into it. There are some structure issues which I will be fixing for around 6-7k, but my real problem is this:

http://gis.co.greene.oh.us/website/gis/parcels/sketchinit.htm?h_pid1=B42000400110011000&h_pid2=&h_criteria=sketch

As you can see on the sketch, there was a 2 car garage added directly behind the attached 2 car garage, with the garage door facing the backyard. This new 2 car garage was put on a while ago and is essentially attached the first one (have to look close to see this was an addition. Unfortunately, it would be very difficult to even access this garage even if you wanted to as you would have to drive through the grass on the side of the grass. I would need to put quite a bit of dirt in front of the garage door to make it level anyway. You wouldnt be able to drive through the first garage into the second because the 2nd garage is a few feet lower than the first.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with this extra garage. Should I keep it like it is? Make it accessible as a garage? Turn it into a room (no heating/air).

By the way, the area in between the 2 garages is just a narrow hallway. Keep in mind the brick from the original back of the house is now the back of the additional 2 car garage.

Any ideas would be much appreciated!!

[Ryan Tam]

Don't know how comfortable you are with serious structure work, but personally I would make that rear garage into an extra 400 sq ft of living space. Bringing heat and insulation in shouldn't be too difficult.

Of course, it all depends on the $/ sq ft value of the property. If real estate is only worth $30/sq ft in the area, then I'd say leave it. If it's worth $200/sq ft, then you are looking at a potential equity increase of $80,000, so even if you put in $50,000, you would still come out $30,000 on top.

Factor in your time cost, upkeep, $ lost in rent during construction, etc. Crunch the number and see what you get. All part of the fun!

[Will Barnard]

Very wierd! Since the back garage is lower by 2 feet, you can not make a 4 car tandem garage, thusm what to do here!

Did you check building and safety to see if this was permitted? If not, how about just demoliting the secondary illegal garage and open up the backyard to more space!

If not, perhaps turn into a bonus game room, man cave, etc..
If the narrow hallway is at least 3 feet in width, perhaps you have the ability to add a doorway from inside the home to the hallway in order to connect to rear garage, then the room is accessible from teh main house. hard to say just looking at the drawing.

[Karen Margrave]

Michael S. Is it permitted and built to code? What is your weather like? It has no value as a garage, but could as a shop or hobby room. You could add a couple sets of french doors and open it to the patio area, make it a game room, mother in law quarters, or even a master bedroom suite, etc. As for heating/air, if you are adding living space you would need to install, and have access from hall. There's all kinds of things you could do, the question is, what makes sense for the tenant/buyer or ? that you are trying to cater to.

If we had actualy pics of the house, could see the qualitiy of construction, and have an idea of the neighborhood, etc. we could figure out more answers.

[Michael S.]

Thanks everybody. Karen, I will get pics up soon.

Any other thoughts/ideas?

[Will Barnard]

More thoughts/ideas will come with photos!

[Jeremiah Jordan]

I believe you could turn it into a 4 stall garage. All you would have to do is either ramp the floor where the hallway currently is, although 2 feet in a short span like that is quite a ramp. Or if the roof is high enough to allow for it you could just have a concrete contractor bring in fill to to bring the 2nd garage floor up to height and cap it with a new slab that matches the first garage. That shouldn't be very expensive at all.