What is a Minimum Garage Depth?

[New Orleans Guy]

I am doing an appraisal of a home under construction. The owners decided to take some of the garage space for other interior areas. What I am left with is a 2 car garage that is only 14' deep by the standard 20' wide. Is it still a 2 car garage? Some cars will fit but my F150 would probably not. No one is pushing me to call it a garage but it seems like it is one.... just shallow.

 

[Sid Holderly]

1.5 car garage, space for lawn mower or motorcycle

 

[hastalavista]

It depends what the market standard is.

I do older homes (older for my area, circa 1900s) and I couldn't fit my car into their 1-car garage (which was added after the home was constructed). However, many of these owners buy very small cars (especially in San Francisco).

It sounds to me like it is a garage, but is limited in its utility. The question is this: Does that limitation effectively eliminate the garage-utility expectation in the market where it exists?
If so, then I'd say you have a garage that is not functional, and can be used for storage. I'd probably want to find homes without garages to use as comparables.
If the size doesn't eliminate the garage-utility, but limits it, then your garage probably contributes less value than a full-size garage. What that difference may be will be challenging, but not impossible, to reasonably estimate.
A house with a 2-car garage vs. a house with no garage, all other things being equal, may sell for $20k more.
A house with a 2-car garage with limited utility would reasonably be expected to contribute value less than $20k but more than zero.
Research (and, I'd recommend calling agents and getting their feedback) will help you narrow the range, and then pick your number.

(I'm assuming it makes no sense to revert the garage back to its original depth).

Good luck!

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

Call it inadequate. I knew a builder/Realtor who went mad (tied an anchor to his leg and threw himself overboard..really - apparently had developed schizophrenia) but before his wife left him, he built a home for them and had a double wide garage that was 6' deep. He kept his mower in it. The rear of the garage was an oversized master bed/bath.

The assessor measured the house and assumed a 22' depth, thus reduced the GLA by 384 SF and assigned it to "garage"...not realizing the garage was shallow. It was a clever way to reduce the taxes.

 

[Proactive]

22'-24' is the typical depth for a garage in my market. I had one a few weeks ago where the owners framed in an 8'x 10' laundry room at the rear corner of the garage, leaving a 14' depth on one side of the 20' wide garage.

Of course, you can't put 1.5 in the garage # cars section on page 1 of the 1004 any more (thank you, UAD), so I put 2 on page 1 with explanatory comments in the condition section and entered 1.5 in the garage/carport section on page 2.

 

[Mountain Man]

In the old days, 14 feet would be okay. Most didn't use the garage to park cars, it was the man cave and lawn mower/motorcycle storage. Over the years as our building business grew, we started building in more luxury neighborhoods with covenants against parking on the street or having cars outside over night. Most of these homes had 3 or 4 car garages and we started building them to be a minimum of 22 feet as people actually used them for auto parking. So your question is one of functional obsolescence and local custom, as well if there are any neighborhood covenants against parking outside.

 

[New Orleans Guy]

Great responses from everyone, thanks! After giving it more thought and measuring my neighbors car I decided to call it a garage since it will still fit cars (not big trucks) in it. The neighborhood has a lot of homes with no garage, 2 car garages, carports, etc. so this will not put it as an oddball either way. I thought of making a little deduction ($5,000 or less) for size of the garage although I fear I will provoke a landslide of stips. Plus after consulting with another appraiser he brought up a good point that we don't add for extra deep garages so why depreciate for slightly smaller ones. I will add a note describing the shallow size at least.

 

[Proactive]

When I was out earlier I passed one of those Smart Cars on the freeway. You probably could fit two of those end-to-end in a 14' deep space.

Still, in Idaho, a full size two-car garage is preferred over a 1.5 car space. Gotta have room for the little lady's pickup, too! :laugh:

 

[NorthTexValuation]

Great responses from everyone, thanks! After giving it more thought and measuring my neighbors car I decided to call it a garage since it will still fit cars (not big trucks) in it. The neighborhood has a lot of homes with no garage, 2 car garages, carports, etc. so this will not put it as an oddball either way. 1. I thought of making a little deduction ($5,000 or less) for size of the garage although I fear I will provoke a landslide of stips. 2. Plus after consulting with another appraiser he brought up a good point that we don't add for extra deep garages so why depreciate for slightly smaller ones. I will add a note describing the shallow size at least.

1. What would you be basing that "little $5000" deduction on?

2. That's only a good analogy and reasonable conclusion IF you can fit two "typical" size cars (for that neighborhood) in the "shorter" garage.

 

[Mark K]

No way I'd call it a garage. 14' deep is a bad joke, at least in this area. Attached storage unit is a better description.

Once I had a guy try to convince my that a 7' x 7' room was a bedroom. Just because you can fit a bed in it doesn't make it a "bedroom", IMO. Same for your "garage". Just because you can find an econobox that fits doesn't make it a garage. By that standard, a 10' x 14' yard barn is now a "detached garage".