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What about those houses with RV Garages

hbillsmith
Explorer
Explorer
We have just about completed our 3 year journey to camp and visit in all of the lower 48 states. As we traveled we often took a look at those southern communties in Arizona, Texas, Alabama and Florida where one can buy a small brick and mortar house with a huge garage or RV port. We live in North Texas and for all kinds of reasons we won't be moving our base from there,but why can't a builder do those RV Port homes here?

So we've contacted a few and invited them to do their own surveys at the RV shows. We published our message to them in our blog. If your interested, this link will take your directly to the articles and research. Feel free to comment back here or in the blog if you like.

Who builds a home with an RV Garage or Port
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JAC1982
Explorer
Explorer
IdaD wrote:
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.


I'm with you, I don't like the giant doors facing the street. In my post above I mentioned we looked at homes in Boise. The one with the 2 RV bays and a regular garage, all you saw from the front was garage doors. The whole street was like that too, and to me, it felt like driving down a road in a storage facility. My favorite house was right between Nampa and Meridian and while it had a huge RV bay (45' plus a 25' shop behind it with a lower ceiling), it was set back from front of the house even though it was still attached, and the main 3 car garage was a side load, so it wasn't so like "HEY LOOK AT ALL OUR GARAGES" when you were looking at it from the front.
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tragusa3
Explorer
Explorer
I've always planned to buy rural property, build an "shop" large enough for the RV and some living space inside. My investment would be small and resale shouldn't be tainted, as many looking to build rural would appreciate the value of a "shop".

I'm guessing I could do this round about the same price as a starter home. I personally wouldn't want a home valued over 300k with the RV garage option. Just too limited in resale.
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JAC1982
Explorer
Explorer
Lots of homes in my neighborhood have either attached RV garages, or separate ones. It's a newer neighborhood though, oldest home here is only about 6 years old. We'll be building a separate one in the next few years.

We also went house hunting in the Boise area (Star, Meridian, Middleton, Nampa, Caldwell) last fall and every home we looked at had an RV garage, attached. One had two bays for RVs along with an extra deep 2 car bay. Now, that was one of our requirements but there sure was plenty to pick from. I was a bit dumbfounded at the builders who spent the money to build an oversized garage, but not make it tall enough for a 5th wheel. We ran into that a few times...homes with an 11 or 12' door instead of 14. I guess they had boats or travel trailers in mind instead.
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C_Schomer
Explorer
Explorer
There were spec homes with air conditioned rv garages in the Phx west valley. I wasn't going to pay Denver prices when I came back to Co. So I found a 5 acre horse property at Pueblo and built the house and oversized double rv garage, exactly like I wanted them. Hardly any restrictions with a horse property! I grew up on a farm with buildings to keep everything covered and this is like going back... but without the stink or chores to do before sunrise and dark. I LOVE it!! Craig
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ReneeG
Explorer
Explorer
IdaD wrote:
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.


We live in an older subdivision, but two homeowners built RV garages. One built a pole barn and enclosed it. It looks very nice and is trimmed and painted to match his house. I'd like to do that. We park our FW beside our house and have more than enough room to do this on our corner lot.
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Durb
Explorer
Explorer
Spent a Spring Break in Lake Havasu City, there are a lot of houses down there of just that style. Probably, to protect their RVs from the sun.

IdaD
Explorer
Explorer
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.
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NRALIFR
Explorer
Explorer
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, youโ€™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 youโ€™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 itโ€™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 thatโ€™s 30x30 with a 16โ€™ ceiling and a 14โ€™ 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 30โ€™, like the septic tank and underground electric service, but if you were building new you could avoid dealing with that. Itโ€™s big enough for any truck camper, or a short class C.



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ReneeG
Explorer
Explorer
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.
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bukhrn
Explorer III
Explorer III
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.
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okhmbldr
Explorer
Explorer
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.

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

RV Garage Homes
Matt
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lots2seeinmyrv
Explorer
Explorer
We are searching for the same thing in a 55+ community.

Builders need to build more of these homes.

Hammerboy
Explorer
Explorer
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
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jkwilson
Explorer II
Explorer II
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.
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