Emphasizing the Garage When Selling a House

[toast00]

Hi everyone,

A bit of an odd question, but we are thinking of selling our house for something bigger and gone through the valuations etc. 

Several estate agents have popped round but none were interested in the garage.

Granted it doesn't look much from the outside, but when  built, I made it double skinned, insulated, double size, girders in the roof for hoisting, a pit and pedestrian door. To a car enthusiast such as on here, it would be a dream for a 3-bed semi with a garage like this but the only thing one estate agent could say was that it could be converted into an outdoor room.

Is there a way of asking estate agents to emphasize the garage and not just to focus on the house?

House is in Nottingham area and seems a shame a car guy (or girl) isn't aware of the garage when looking for houses. 

[fr€$h&m1nt¥]

Ultimately the estate agent is acting on your behalf so if you want to emphasise the work / money invested in the garage then you should be able to ask them to include it in the description - especially with online adverts having unlimited word counts.

[jamesd1972]

WHS ^
Estate agents often don't get it, not important to them doesn't mean not important to all buyers.
On a purely sales basis if cars are your 'thing' and you are proud of your garage any good salesman would reflect that interest to get the business of selling your house.
The market for people who might want an insulated outbuilding is probably bigger than people who want a pit - but its still a big positive either way over the house with a crappy single skin damp leaky garage.
James

[toast00]

Cheers guys, shame RR doesn't have a house selling section!

[cb11acd]

The amount of houses we didn't view because there were either no pictures of the garage, or was not included in the floorplan was huge.

We saw some with only a bit of information because the house was really nice. In the end our decision to buy this house for me was because the garage was longer and a bit wider than a standard single.

Tell the estate agent to include it, its a big selling point for car enthusiasts, woodworkers, bikers... anyone with a garage based hobby.

[cortinaman]

When we sold our house a couple of years ago, we pretty much had to write the description for the estate agent, so if you want to emphasise the merits of the garage, you may have to do the same.

You often see classified ads in the classic car magazines for "houses suitable for the car enthusiast", they tend to be top end properties but if you want to sell your house it might be worth investing a few quid in doing something similar.

[LowStandards]

I emailed Rightmove in the past as they have filters for pretty much everything, but not a garage.

They seemed to care not a jot

Sad times!

[jmsheahan]

Jan 23, 2020 14:57:13 GMT LowStandards said:

I emailed Rightmove in the past as they have filters for pretty much everything, but not a garage.

They seemed to care not a jot

Sad times!

THIS. Having just bought our first house it's so annoying not having the garage option! For obvious reasons this was just as important as the house for my requirements but perhaps we are in the minority these days. The amount of estate agents that don't bother adding dimensions or drawings for them is frustrating too.

Toast - hassle your estate agent to make more of a deal of it if you feel it's important and get it added to the floor plan if you can. If they are anything like ours was (I.E f*cking useless) keep on pushing on a daily basis. It's hard sometimes to keep at it (I'm a chilled bloke and it's exhausting to keep at them sometimes) but you are paying them for a service at the end of the day.

[colnerov]

Hi, The garage you have can broaden it's appeal. So a line to the effect it has a cavity wall double garage with potential for development. A car enthusiast will pick that up and also anyone who wants to build another room. I wouldn't mention the pit because not all car people like them (I certainly don't) and a developer will see it as extra cost to fill in.

Good luck.

Colin

[toast00]

You guys are right about search engines missing features. I'm finding the same now with hunting for a new house.

The number i may have missed due to not showing on the pictures.

Also the number of houses that don't have a garage or have sacrificed a garage for a room conversion. Where do people put all their outdoor junk let alone car stuff?

[colonelsponsz]

Confession time...and hopefully I won't be cast out into the internet wilderness.

I am an Estate Agent....

Still here? Anybody?
OK, well basically your Agent ought to at the very least simply add a sentence about the garage in the description and write-up of the property. I often highlight a good workshop or garage by putting those words in capitals in the narrative and would always include dimensions in the body of the description. For what it's worth, I would definitely have taken a look and noted the pit and so on. As you say, why not include it? - such things won't stop someone (who has no interest in cars) buying it and can only broaden appeal as long as they don't take over the whole listing making it appear niche.
Rightmove does have a keyword search so will prioritise listings matching what you put in whether it's a garage/swimming pool/workshop etc etc. It's not a great filter but might help those searching and the text will need to be there to be picked up as a keyword.
If the agent you pick can't be arsed then you've picked the wrong agent. (PS make sure you pick an agent who doesn't tie you into a long sole agency period either!)

[toast00]

Hi Colonel, Thanks for being brave and for your advice

Whats a long sale agency period?

EDIT: oh i done a bit of reading! Cheers again.

[paul99]

Jan 23, 2020 14:48:48 GMT cortinaman said:

When we sold our house a couple of years ago, we pretty much had to write the description for the estate agent, so if you want to emphasise the merits of the garage, you may have to do the same.

You often see classified ads in the classic car magazines for "houses suitable for the car enthusiast", they tend to be top end properties but if you want to sell your house it might be worth investing a few quid in doing something similar.

If the building is sound, then ripe for use as teenagers den/ office/ gym/ granny flat, god forbid it's used for cars ..... make sure it goes in the blurb.

[accord83]

When we were house hunting the first thing I asked about was the garage, drive length, and space to enlarge a normal sized garage. I got used to the blank looks as a reply. If I ever sell this house it will be stressed that the garage gets listed properly. You're paying them so rip them a second one and make them get it right.

[pauly22]

Garages are disappearing, everyone round here soon converts them so they can get and extra 7 relatives to live in the house.

It is Birmingham though, we sold our house and move out in 6 weeks. We’re still looking for a new house as it must have a big garage or space to build one

Get them to put in the description about the garage.

[Bolf]

I found my place using propertykeyword search on the word 'workshop' , so maybe ask them to chuck in some keywords like that

[nomad]

I sold my first house to a young couple, the chap looked around the 12x22x8 garage (aka barn) first and decided he didn't need to see the rest of the house to know he liked the place. I do similar when I buy - look around the outside & garage first !

I've since sold a few houses and am now very firm about telling the agent what wording I want in the advert. Have had too many "professionals" advertise for me using what is obviously their standard cut & paste text. Some gems I've seen online have even advertised terraced houses as detached - if they can't get the basics right why would you let them control the rest of the advert?

[roger440]

Jan 23, 2020 14:38:37 GMT toast00 said:

Cheers guys, shame RR doesn't have a house selling section!

Hmmm, maybe its time it did.

When i sell mine in a year or 2, its ideal for our kind of people.

[60six]

That will teach me for 'quickly reading'

I read 'a pit and pedestrian' as 'a pit and pendulum' and thought 'the estate agents must of heard about it and didn't fancy going in'

For those uninitiated, it's one scary short story by Edgar Allan Poe.

[Flynn]

I too, bought my first house on the strength of the garage and driveway space that was on offer, as far as I was concerned the house was a nice bonus in the deal. I share in the frustrations that the house trading industry doesn't seem to care about garages and workshops - let's not forget that some of the finest inventions in this country started out as fiddling about in a shed!

Anyway, I sold my last house with an online agent and would highly recommend the process. It was a fixed fee, part of which paid for a professional photographer who came round and really made the house look its best in the pictures. I had full control over which pictures were used so obviously made sure a good garage shot was in there. I also wrote the description myself so the garage got more than the usual one liner that seems to be the standard for most house listings.