jwilberdog

although the c4s is a great car, I don't think it has much of a collectible premium attached to it. They are very affordable (although the prices seemed to have been climbing a little as of late) For mid 40's you can easily get a nice version. In my opinion, most of the depreciation curve is gone and they should be relatively flat for years. Don't see them appreciating though, the production #'s don't make them that rare (unless it's a 98)

pig4bill

Interesting. I've never heard of a 993 described as being "rough around the edges" or having a nice exhaust note.

Regarding the garage, is there space on the property for a detached one? Not as spiffy as the one you described, but a lot cheaper.

MarkPcar

Jeff,
I work in the real estate home valuation field. Completely ignoring the car issue - are you sure your neighborhood would support a small $40k garage?

The best way to find our would be to add the current market value of your home, plus the cost of the expansion, plus the cost of the garage = total value.

Now, take your wife out on a Sunday afternoon and look at open houses of homes in that price range with standard 3 car garages. In the end, who has more house? Your remodeled home or the ones you looked at?

Also, keep in mind that major remodels add equivilant value only when they work with the "flow" of the existing floor plan. I've seen way too many major additions that have poor floor plans and are very dificult to sell at an equivilant dollar per square foot, when compared to a home that was originally built to comprable size.

Good luck with it!

exc911ence

Seeing that you already have a 2 car garage, I say, buy the C4S and park the Pathfinder outside. So you have to brush a little snow off of the SUV... YOU'LL HAVE TWO 911's!!!

johnnyquest

Thanks everyone for the input. The more I consider it, the builder's back-of-the-envelope calculation seems just outrageous for what will be some (admittedly dicey) excavation, one wall, a roof and a cement floor. Maybe this was the builder's way of saying he didn't want to do it. I'll post the actual bid when it comes in.

I wrestle with moving/staying put issues constantly and there are many variables, schools, proximity to the train (R5 for you main liners), length of commute, etc. To move up to more house and more ground in Lower Merion Township would involve several hundred thousand more than our current house. And it would likely need a fair amount of work - here there is mostly older housing stock. We got the current house very cheaply for a number of reasons, it showed badly because it had not been updated, few buyers that time of year, bottom of the market, eager seller, etc. Over the last 10 years we've put a lot into re-doing the kitchen, bathrooms, cosmetics, landscaping, roof, mechanicals, etc. Moving up to a house that doesn't need major work is a very-high six figure to seven figure proposition. Not in the cards. Looks like me and carrera are staying put a while