Obviously most people are not going to consider it to be a real two bathroom house.

However the current price - or fair market value - is going to reflect that it is a one bathroom house because two bathroom homes are going to be sold at a higher price reflecting that reality.

Personally I would not purchase the home because a four BEDROOM home with only one bathroom is a very odd configuration. If you need four bedrooms, it is likely that you have a family with at least two kids.

Depending on the price, think about whether you can add a bathroom - getting rid of one of the bedrooms is an obvious choice since most people are fine with three bedrooms/2 baths and a powder room downstairs.

Frankly I wouldn't buy a home with one bath and no powder room on the first floor. I wouldn't want to have everyone go upstairs to use the toilet - both for privacy and because some people might have difficult going up stairs.

I would not buy the house. I’m currently renting, looking to buy in my immediate area. I have the luxury of biding my time because my rent is reasonable. But do consider: is your lease up? Other considerations such as getting kids into schools? Long, unbearable commutes to work? Think of those things before buying something that is questionable. It might be worth it to you, but a mortgage is a long commitment. I’m not talking about waiting for the perfect home; just something that isn’t odd.

Too many variables. Does the bath reduce the 2 car to a 1 car? Do you actually walk into the garage, or is the bath connecting via hallway/mudroom? Was it added with a permit, so the tax assessment lists the house as a 2BA? Can you really differentiate the exact cost difference between a 4BR/2BA home and a 4BR/1BA home when there are so many influences, like location, updates, size of bedrooms, location, layout/flow, and location?

I'd be concerned about pipes bursting in winter in the unconditioned space.

I would wonder what other oddities are in the house, maybe that you can’t see.

It would be helpful to know the actual configuration but I will assume the bathroom is heated and that it's necessary to pass through the garage to access the bathroom.

If the applicable building code requires all parts of a house to have an egress path to the outside that doesn't pass though a garage, how can this arrangenent be code compliant?

Was it built with a permit? Go to the building department and look through the property file; it's public information. Do not ask the building official unless you intend to force the current owner to remove it.

2020 RESIDENTIAL CODE OF NEW YORK STATE:

Thanks for the help! Let me clarify: the full bath is on the far side of the garage, ie you walk through the garage to go in the bathroom. The 2 car garage is oversized and heated and the bathroom allows 2 cars to comfortably fit in the garage. There is another full bath inside the home. The asking price is for 4 bed/2 bath and we dont think anyone will pay a 2 bath price for this home. First time home buyers so wanted some veterans' opinions. Thanks!

I certainly would. Doesn't mean you shouldn't buy it--but if you need two bathrooms, then I'd factor in the cost of adding a second (and make sure it's feasible) in the main living space, and offer accordingly.

I suppose you could add a vestibule or corridor to the bathroom that meets the garage-dwelling separation requirement. Or you could demand that the current owner make it code complant.

But without a plan I can't offer realistic advice.

Sorry but that should be priced as a 4 br/ 1 bth

In some aspects, the bathroom in the garage would be overly convenient at times.

I grew up in a home with three bathrooms, one was in the house and two were behind the barn.

I am not sure it matters since legally it probably doesn't qualify as a bathroom.

But that really isn't the issue since the price of the house should reflect that it is for all legal and practical purposes a one bathroom house.

There might be some use from it if you had kids and their friends over a lot or entertained outside a lot and so people would have a bathroom where they didn't have to go inside. That is why many people with pools or who live at the shore have an outside shower and/or a bathroom with a door that leads to the outside.

And of course there is the famous (or infamous) Pittsburg toilet which in its original glory was literally just a toilet out in the open in the basement.

But as others have posted, I would not want to live in a house with effectively one bathroom unless it was feasible to remodel and add at least a powder room downstairs if not both a powder room and a master bath on the upper floor.

I really can't imagine sending people out to the garage to use a bathroom under normal circumstances.

Again, what's a 2nd bath in a 4BR home that isn't considered a "real" bathroom worth to you? $2K? $5K? $10K? What does your realtor and the comps say? Does the price already reflect a discount compared to "pure" 4BR/2BA? What if this bathroom was for outdoor pool use? You cannot just isolate this one thing for a meaningful impact on the many criteria involved to buy a house.

"Sorry but that should be priced as a 4 br/ 1 bth "

It probably is priced that way. It's not like all 4 bed/2 bath homes have a certain fixed price, and all 4 bed/1bath homes have another certain fixed price, etc. Many factors go into pricing a home, and at the end of the day a house is worth whatever someone will pay for it. No one is obligated to offer to pay the listing price. When buying a house, you need to determine how much it is worth to you to pay for it. That might be more or less than someone else is willing to pay.

I don't know about people not using it. It's not quite the same, but where I grew up many people had a toilet/sink/shower set up in their otherwise unfinished basements. Many people had a secondary stove/sink in their unfinished basement or their garage--often referred to as their canning stove or something like that.

There are houses in my neighborhood that have bathrooms in unfinished basements, including ours and we use it all the time because the laundry is already there. It's a real bathroom inserted into a regular basement. I probably use it more than one of the two upstairs.

And there are garages and basements and there are garages and basements. The garage of the house I grew up in got swept out every week in the summer and mopped every week in the winter and was extremely tidy. It had curtains in it.

That said, I would probably think the house in question is priced lower than a house that has two inside the house proper.

Thank you to everyone who counselled me to call about the permit. They pulled a permit to build the garage but not bathroom, so the code officer said if we bought it we would either need to demolish the bathroom or get a building permit and electrical survey. He also said it may cause a problem with getting a mortgage, and with how expensive the home is, I assume we would be selling it someday to a buyer who needs a mortgage.

It's interesting how compliance is different in various parts of the country. About 80% of kitchens and baths here are remodeled without permits which apparently render these houses unsellable in certain markets.

@palimpsest - I did a gut remodel and everything was permitted and inspected.

However many people don't pull permits for single family homes when it really is just a cosmetic upgrade for all practical purposes.

However additions and adding a completely new element like a bathroom is another thing all together.

i did get a questionaire from the Tax Assessor because permits had been pulled for my remodel, However that questionaire differentiated between replacements and new elements. My bathroom and kitchen were signicantly upgraded but in terms of their questionaire I had merely replaced elements of the original kitchen and bathrooms.

Looking for your first house. You want to stop renting, I get it! I’ve been there. I’m actually not that concerned about the, perhaps, oddity of bathroom in garage. If the house really speaks to you and you love most everything, I suppose you could consider it. But imo (having bought and sold many homes), it’s a bit risky when additions or updates don’t have permits. Good luck to you.

One of the reasons here for such lax attention to permits for kitchen and bath remodels in the middle of the city is that most houses are row houses and lot sizes were determined in the 19th c. and based upon joist span from party wall to party wall, so that the houses do not have load bearing walls on the interior. And typical lot width starts at about a minimum of 9 feet, with lots of 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, up to about 20 max. And the streets with wider lot sizes will typically have an interior masonry load bearing wall about one hallway's width away from the party wall.. The typical structural failure that occurs here is unpermitted basement digout and underpinning.

Even before resale becomes an issue, you may have problems with the appraisal. If this second bathroom is not part of the house proper, chances are the appraiser will value it as a one bathroom house. You should talk to your agent about this issue because you don't want to pay for an inspection and appraisal only to find out that you can't get a mortgage because the value came back too low.

I know of a 1930s house near me that has an original half bath in the garage. It is against the house wall and I believe it is heated through the house HVAC system. One mid century house we had viewed years ago, had a powder room on the main floor, another one in the walkout basement and a half bath in the garage for the chauffeur and workers. I recently went through another 50s ranch where the original second bathroom was a walkthrough between the family room and the garage. However I can't say I have ever seen a bathroom not part of the house in the US

I have a number of plan books with 1920s-30s houses in them, a number of which have either a toilet or a full bath accessed from the exterior service porch off the kitchen, or flush toilet in the garage. Including houses which are large enough to have maids rooms and such, so not a low-end feature. Probably transitional from the privy in the back yard.

I found the house under discussion. (Hey, I'm bored and the area in question isn't all that large....LOL.)

It's a nice little house. The garage in question is a VERY large 2 car garage that is heated, and looks like it was probably used more like shop space, or maybe someone even ran business from there. The full bath is tucked into the corner and is actually pretty nice for a "garage" bathroom.

If you like the house, I'd use its nonpermitted state as a bargaining chip and see what you can do. It looks like the market up there is solid and lots of people are looking at that house so I don't know exactly HOW much bargaining power you have - but I also don't see much else on the market around there at that price that isn't horrifying ugly or decrepit.

People on this board are quick to say ditch something and move on. And if you're not sure that this is the right house then please don't let me talk you into anything. LOL. But you don't have a lot of choices up there at all, and this place looks well maintained at least in the photos.

Since it's in a heated and I assume insulated and wired garage, I would consider it a full bath in there. If the garage is attached to the house, I would consider it part of the house bathroom count. If the garage is not attached to the house, I would consider it part of the outbuilding count rather than listed as part of the house count.

But really it depends on how real estate and laws are set up where you are. If someone considers it part of the house count or not might be moot against the standard of the area.

Keep looking...!

The garage is attached to the house and it's also clean and seems very nice.

Honestly, the 2nd bathroom in the garage is not that big a deal to me. I'd use it as a bargaining chip but wouldn't discount the entire house because of it. It's got a full basement so you could "easily" add another bathroom down there. Or the 4th bedroom is really small and if you don't need it you could make a fabulous bathroom there. There are all kinds of options....

The house appears very clean and well maintained. It's a first time home buyer's price in that market and honestly the other options are both very limited and relatively heinous.

Depends on how bad they need to get out of their rental, how much time they have to play with, etc..

While we have plenty of bathrooms in the house, the builder put a bath in the garage (toilet, sink, shower) and when we first looked at the house we thought “how odd” - after being here a year and a half we LOVE the garage bathroom - fabulous when you’re working out in the yard, or in the garage itself. It’s got a small electric 5gal water heater, so of course long showers (why you’d do that anyways) are out (maybe they bathed their dogs??) The walls were well insulated and we heat the garage, so no worries about broken pipes.

I went and looked up the listing. Thanks Ally De for the helpful hint.

After looking at the way the house walks into the garage, that there can be a fridge out there out there as well as a built in bathroom... it's a finished garage with the drywall, built in cabinets, windows, and egress doors as well as the garage door. I would say it counts in as part of the house bathroom count. Since it's a stall shower, that would count as a 3/4 bath rather than a full bath in some places. Permits permitting, one could replace the garage door with a full wall and have a full indoor space. And put another two car garage in front of it- perhaps attaching it. It looks like if you wanted to you would rework the bath to include a tub and make it a true full bath if you wanted to.

Otherwise, nice place. I like that you can have the laundry and two freezers in the basement. That can be handy. Decent amount of yard, and an outbuilding.

It sounds like you've taken the steps to check on the permit, now need to decide if you want the expense of applying for one, hoping it passes an inspection - paying whatever is due for the owners omission. Or, using that as a bargaining point in your offer if you like the house/location enough to make an offer.

I would still see it as a one bath house even if the garage is as nicely finished as described. I haven't seen the listing.

In any case, I'm not sure I'd want to walk out there in my nightie to use it, and I probably wouldn't send young children out to the garage to shower and brush their teeth.

My BIL did add a 3/4 bath (heated) to a three car garage. That end, a room separated by a finished wall, also held an additional refrigerator, a freezer, Costco overflow. It was not an attached garage. It was located on a hobby type farm and used mostly when the children didn't want to go all the way to the house to use the bathroom, or he was too dirty from working in the barn or field to walk into the house. His wife mostly refused to clean it, and he was responsible for any muddy floor, keeping the sink and toilet sanitary. I don't know if permitted or not, but suspect not. The home is on a septic system, not city sewer.

We did make an offer with our agent's comps in mind and it was rejected because of a very high offer they were given last year, so we parted ways and are looking at another house today. Thanks for all the help!