Input on turn a 24'x30' garage into a 720sf apt

[Beth Gorman]

Looking to turn a 24'x30' garage into a 720 sf 1bd/1ba apartment and seeking input on construction concerns and ideas of interest I need to take into consideration when costing out this conversion.  Located 30 mins north of Milwaukee, in city of Hartford.  Garage is on separate city lot adjacent to my current residence, with own city water and electric, however need to bring utilities to garage from street hookup.  Garage is slab on grade with no footings. 

Any and all thoughts welcome and appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your time! 

Beth Gorman

[Alecia Loveless]

@Beth Gorman I recently looked into converting a garage loft space into a studio apartment space. It is roughed in and has the plumbing right below it. My contractor determined it would cost approximately $80,000 to do the conversion from start to finish.

We have a simple permit process here that would likely take about 1 month and not cost more than $500.

I had a tenant lined up for the unit to probably live there for many years to come, but by the time I did the math I said for $80,000 that’s a 25% down payment on a 5 unit building that will cash flow 5X what this studio apartment would and will ultimately increase my net worth by $400,000, the price of the new apartment building instead of about $25,000 and losing the other $55,000 because the property with the new studio wouldn’t go up in value by $80,000, only by about $25,000.

I’d definitely rent it out as a garage. Someone will want to store a classic car or something and for a nominal cost you could install one or two modine heaters if it’s not already heated and the renter could pay for a little heat to keep it just above freezing if they wanted to for whatever they’re storing if it is something like a classic car as opposed to just some jet skis or something like that.