I am working on a appraisal that the garage was converted.The quality of the garage is the same as the rest of the home,and is used as a rec room.The only problem i am having is that it is not Central air but a built in unit in tne wall.I look at Redlink and some appraisers included the conversion and some did not.The county included the conversion as GLA.I am honestly nervous because this is an estate owned property.If i chose not to include it how do i adjust for this 400 sq ft.Thanks in advance guys.

I would say it does have value. Possibly not the same value per sq-ft as the GLA. I does however have value.

Now, do the comparable sales in the development or market area have garages? If so, what is the functional obsolesce of not having a 2 cat attached garage?

Maybe the extra space and lack of a garage is a wash.

Paired sales analysis is your friend here.

You state "The quality of the garage is the same as the rest of the home," and in the next sentence you say that the garage has a window unit AC. Based on those two statements alone I am going to guess that your finished garage doesn't have heat, maybe a fireplace instead. If that is the case I wouldn't count it as GLA.

While a 2 cat attached garage is unique, I really meant to say 2 CAR garage.

Like Randy said, it has to have heat (as well as fenestration and an egress) to be considered living area. AC is not a requirement.

Does sound like a dilemma indeed.

I appraised a house a few weeks ago that had it's garage finished and heated. However, it was in a neighborhood where all other recent sales in the past 12 months had 2 car garages. So, it got an adjustment for the living space but then an adjustment for not having a garage.

Of course the agents involved still felt the place had the same value as houses of similar size, condition and with garages. Go figure.

I've found they're usually a wash. Take away a grage and add low cost GLA. There's not mutch after the adjustment.

I took his post to mean the wall unit was heat & air??

Do they make a wall unit that has both a heater and an ac unit in it?

Think cost to cure. Reasonable adjustment would be cost to install central system for the area.

Yes it has both heat and air.

Youse,

Cost to cure gets GLA contribution.

What about functional obsolence if comparables have 2 car (or cat) garages?

Mr. Smithmyer you are correct. The adjustment again may simply be the cost to cure or construction of another garage verified by results from paired sales. It is possible that garage space converted to a standard less than primary living area could diminish final value dependent on market demand for covered or enclosed parking.

I tell you what...if you are in a typical subdivision in which all the homes have two car garages..and some ding dong, converts the gargage to "GLA"...that decision costs them big time...

Especially if the subdivision is built in the late 1990's on...About two years ago..I did a home in a ranch subdivision, all slab homes, where another homeowner converted his garage...that house sat on the market for over a year, while 7 more homes sold...

He finally ended up, spending a good amount of money to convert the "bonus room" back in to a garage...and the house sold in 60 days....

The typical buyer wants at least a two car garage these days, even better, a three car garage...to at least store "junk" if not their cars...

Even though it might be a nice conversion...In my opinion it is a huge negative in today's marketplace..

Good Luck Andrew..

Mike P.