Would you buy a house with a converted garage?

[intolerant]

Housing market stagnation to one side for a moment..... we have a 4 bed detached house with an integral garage. DH wants to convert it to a room that the kids (approaching teens) can use for hanging out with friends. He has contingency plans for all the crap useful stuff stored in there. We, like most of the population, have never put the car in there. However, if we ever decide to move, do you think people would be put off by a house this size not having a garage? You see I think I might, although DH reckons a 3rd reception room is preferable. Opinions gratefully received.....

Cause they are a bunch of cowboys! Although it's a franchise so the service you get will rather depend on where you live. I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole - unqualified people touching my electrics and gas supply, and generally their standard of work was shocking. I had to get trademen in to repair their awful work as after 8 weeks into a job that was meant to take 10 days I couldn't bear the sight of them any more.

I'd be torn...my house in Cornwall was built before cars were invented, so no garage, but off street parking for 3 cars. The house I rent in Brussels has an integral garage/cellar, although the slope to it is so steep that my car grounds out on it; dh can get his in. We use it more for storage than anything else, and ds can paint and play with his Warhammer down there.

Nope. But then DH has a ridiculous amount of stuff and has several dissected cars in ours.

My Mum and I live in identical houses next to each other. She has converted the integral garage, we have not. Recently we had them both valued as she wants to sell as she is never in UK, but we want to 'swap' and pay the difference as she has already had all the work done on hers that we would want to do (conservatory/garden/garage conversion). The estate agents valued them almost identically (£10k difference due to conservatory and better maintained etc) but told us that the garage makes no difference converted or not because it is still a 'garage' meaning they have gained a room but lost the garage so cancel each other out. That really suprised us, but with a young family the extra downstairs playroom would be heaven sent, shut all the crap away at last.

That's very interesting, drivinmecrazy. It seems then, that for every person who wants a garage, another would plump for the extra room. Which means that we should do what suits us, I guess, as we're intending to stay forever and whether or not it would add value is therefore irrelevant at this point. By the way, we couldn't leave the garage door there and convert behind it because there's nowhere else to put a window that would give enough light - don't really want to look across a narrow passage towards next door's wall. And we'd raise the floor so there's no step down into it from the hall. And we'd get it properly hated - I grew up with one of those extensions that you needed to put your coat on to go into. Horrid.

We intend to convert ours but don't expect it to add anything to the value of the property, if it doesn't sell when the time comes I'll just put the garage doors back on again, it's not rocket science.
The estate agents should be pointing that out to prospective purchasers.

I wouldn't as we have way too much crap

I wouldn't but then I keep my 43 year old ickle sports car in the garage. But it's all according to your personal circumstances isn't it though? I think Steamboats post early in the thread has the right idea, if you want the space now and will be there long term do it. It's a home after all and should be how it suits your family.

We've just bought a house with a converted garage and tbh it was one of the main reasons we went for it.We have it as a playroom which is great for keeping all the toys in and when the dc's are older we can have the room as something else.
However there are 2 large sheds in the garden and a large loft,so we do have plenty of storage elsewhere.