What about those houses with RV Garages

ReneeG wrote:
Here in Idaho, the Boise area, there are a lot of subdivisions with these types of homes. Good friends had a new home built in an upper end subdivision, with a three car garage and 40' RV garage and they aren't the only ones. RV's are popular here. They moved from Palm Springs first to Carson City, NV hoping to build like that and couldn't at an affordable price so they came back home to Idaho and built within their price range.

Yeah I was just going to comment to the contractor above...there are definitely a lot of spec homes on southwest Idaho with RV garages. They're very popular right now.

Personally...I get the practical positives of them, but I just don't like the aesthetic at all. We have an older home with a little property so we have plenty of room to park our fifth wheel out back. It isn't weather protected like it would be in a garage but I much prefer the way our home looks. We do have a large shop with a 12' door that our fifth wheel won't fit in currently, but we may swap in a 14' door at some point to accommodate it.

Having built an attached garage with an RV bay mayself, I understand the challenges, added expense, and the reluctance of the surrounding neighbors to accept them into the area.

In planned developments with normal city sized lots, you’ll probably only find neighborhoods where either everyone has one, or nobody has one. I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of HOA controlled neighborhoods would be dead set against them.

If you’re looking to buy or build in an area where hillside lots are common, you might be able to use the slope to your advantage, provided it’s not too steep. Instead of having the RV garage roofline towering over the rest of the house, and the giant garage door dominating the street view, you could build a side-loading garage behind the house with a lower floor.

I tore down an attached flat-roof garage about 6 years ago, and rebuilt one that has over twice the square footage. We added an RV bay downhill from the original 2-car garage that’s 30x30 with a 16’ ceiling and a 14’ door. Despite the height of the RV bay, it has the lowest roofline of the house. Working with an existing structure, we had to work around a few things that were already in the ground that prevented us from making the RV bay deeper than 30’, like the septic tank and underground electric service, but if you were building new you could avoid dealing with that. It’s big enough for any truck camper, or a short class C.



:):)

Here in Idaho, the Boise area, there are a lot of subdivisions with these types of homes. Good friends had a new home built in an upper end subdivision, with a three car garage and 40' RV garage and they aren't the only ones. RV's are popular here. They moved from Palm Springs first to Carson City, NV hoping to build like that and couldn't at an affordable price so they came back home to Idaho and built within their price range.

jkwilson wrote:
In a lot of places, building codes limit the ratio of garage space to living space or limit the height of homes to the point a 14' door is a problem to integrate into a building while still meeting hurricane requirements.

I have never researched it, but the biggest reasons May be building codes and or ridiculous HOA's, if in an area that has them.

I am a new home builder, and basically I don't think you will ever see a builder construct a spec home with an RV garage. It just limits your potential buyer pool and it's too large an investment to wait for the "right buyer".
I recently built myself a new home on a half-acre lot in a subdivision with about 75 lots. Another builder in this area built a 3000' home with a four car garage Plus an RV garage. Very well done, but it was a custom home at about $600k. The buyer paid for this home as it was built. And, while it's a great idea for the person with a nice motor home who wants to keep it close, another problem I see is selling the home in the future. In ten years the person who built this home with the RV garage will have "aged out" of the RV lifestyle, looking to downsize, and while it won't be impossible, it will be a little harder to sell to your average buyer.

So, if you want an RV garage, you will probably need to build it yourself, or contract with a builder. But, they are really nice.

A new subdivision south of Denver has a couple models with RV garages going in.

RV Garage Homes

We are searching for the same thing in a 55+ community.

Builders need to build more of these homes.

Boy this must be a sign. Just yesterday I was thinking of the same thing in fact I was googling floor plans for such a home. How often does this subject come up?

My dream would be to buy some land in perhaps east Tennessee where it's somewhat centrally located in the country, still have four seasons, plus for years I would tell my wife this is where we are going to retire someday.

Anyway, there are a couple of such developments in Tennesse but they are not what I am looking for either. I like you am interested in just a small home with an attached Rv garage for a home base like this one. Living space under 1000 sq. ft. would be all we need. So with that being said I don't think this type of home would would work in any planned subdivision but if it would work at all it would have to be on property/acreage. Then I start thinking of resale as it would be a unique home that may or may not be hard to sell someday. My thought would be put it on property further off the road where one could build a "normal" home in front and the Rv home could be the barn that has a guest house attached or simply converted into shop space. Being unique I would want it to be flexible space.

Dan

In a lot of places, building codes limit the ratio of garage space to living space or limit the height of homes to the point a 14' door is a problem to integrate into a building while still meeting hurricane requirements.