Perhaps you’re at the very beginning of a garage remodel. You have thought about selling your home in The Woodlands, TX, but you aren’t sure whether the current garage is going to be the right fit for a buyer. The good news is that thinking about a garage remodel early is one of the smartest things you can do for a sale. After all, any real estate agent is going to remind you that, no matter the clutter and disrepair in a garage, buyers will want to see it. You might as well set to work getting it into tip-top shape, and that can include some no-nonsense upgrades that make your garage a true asset to the property.
Setting goals 1: What would you love to see?
If you are still in the early stages of a garage remodel process, you want to think through what your dream for the space would be. In some cases, you want to reclaim valuable indoor space for family time together, for organized storage, or for entertaining. In other cases, the goal is to spruce up the garage so that it helps you sell the house effectively. Either way, start noting as detailed goals as you can, and that means getting out in the garage and assessing how it really looks these days.
Setting goals 2: How much are you willing to spend?
Garage remodels can be as simple as some paint and a few new shelving units or as complex as actually building additions onto the garage and adding finished living space. You want to get quite clear on the range of budgets you are willing to consider. If you’re hoping to sell the home soon, you’ll want to keep your budget quite low, since luxury upgrades tend to find uneven appeal with buyers: you’ll get a much higher home price from a person who loves what you’ve done with the garage, but if all available buyers like it fine but won’t pay more for it, you just don’t recoup as much of the cost. On the other hand, recouping costs of basic upgrades tends to be quite easy, since a cluttered, dusty, and damaged garage shows much worse than a clean, organized, and recently spruced up garage.
Organize the process: What timeline works for you?
You know your timeline best, especially if you’ll be doing much of the remodel work yourself. For a substantial project, give yourself twice as long as you think it will take, especially if you’ll need skilled contractors to come in and do the work.
Organize the process: Understand delays and monitor budgets
The key as work progresses is to keep track of what has been spent and be willing to modify the outcome goals if you are running into challenges sticking to your numbers. Many projects simply turn out to be more expensive than estimated, but if you’re starting to exceed even the wiggle room you build into your budget, remember that you can make changes that shift the project back into your target budget, as long as you talk through the changes with contractors well in advance and make sure everyone is treated fairly in the process.
