Is Garage Door Repair Worth It?

Question

I have a property that has 2 garage doors that need to be repaired and can only be opened manually by hand at the moment. One of the garage doors is no longer usable and we just leave it closed and have a pad lock on the door so the tenant does not try to use it.

After getting several garage companies to come review the system and give quotes, many have suggested that due to a support beam that was installed after the home was installed, a typical garage door opener will not work, and due to the layout of the garage doors, a jack shaft system will also not work.

The only solution left that one company gave was to reduce the opening of the garage door to 6' 6". My concern is that, by reducing the garage opening, that will reduce the amount of car types that can fit into the garage. In your opinion, is it worth repairing the garage, and how much would it decrease how much we could probably charge for rent by not having automatic garage doors?

Thanks

Nathan Gesner · Answer

In my community, parking inside is a plus with freezing temperatures. Otherwise, tenants tend to use the garage as storage space for all their junk or a little work shop and it still has value. Are the tenants asking for it to be repaired so they can park inside? If not, I wouldn't bother with it. I would eventually look for a contractor that could rebuild the interior to support garage door openers and increase the functionality, but I wouldn't sweat over it for now.

David Zeek · Answer

Robert,

Sorry to hear about your situation. I had one tenant, on the day she was moving out, back into my garage door. We used her car insurance to pay of the door. Your situation, insurance may not work, but it may be worth a call to your insurance company, who knows.

If the doors are not fixed, I think that the rent may be affected if it is an A/B neighborhood. C/D may not be affected as much. Some people just want a roof over their head, some want the roof and decent amenities. An operating garage door seems like a good amenity that most people would want.

Dave