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Grandpa’s Getaway … a Luxury Garage
By: Larry Edsall

Last summer, when I was visiting the Midwest, my youngest daughter – she whose family will grow this summer to husband, wife, son, new baby, and don’t forget, Vegas, the wonder dog, and thus it may be time to move out of the rented town house and into a home with more bedrooms (including one for visiting grandparents), and don’t forget a fenced-in back yard for Vegas…

Anyway, she got me to watching a television show called House Hunters. In the show, someone or some couple hunting for a house is shown three properties, at least two of them in their price range, and one of which they have to buy. The lure to the viewer, I guess, is to see the houses, how the person or couple reacts to them, and to guess which one they’ll select.

Now, I’m not eager to think about moving, though it can be fun to watch, and speaking of watching, I’ve found a website that let’s me dream not only about exotic property but about all of those classic cars I’d like to own.

The website is called CarProperty.com and was launched three years ago by Bob “B.C.” Cross, who lives between Palo Alto and San Jose in what generally is known as Silicon Valley.

No surprise, Cross built his own computer software company, and later did a decade as an information technology consultant. But then he got his real estate license.

You see, Cross’s father was a car collector, and so were his father’s friends. Cross remembered how his dad and his friends were always talking about needing homes with more garage space for their cars. With the boom in prosperity in Silicon Valley creating new car collectors in need to more space for their cars, Cross recognized a niche market.

While the MLS focuses on things such as bed and bathrooms, it doesn’t go into the details of garage stalls, ceiling heights to accommodate car lifts, etc.

Cross not only did general real estate work, but specialized in properties that would appeal to car collectors. When he realized that he was one of the few agents anywhere providing such a service, he launched his website as a place people could see such properties regardless of where they lived – or planned to move.

But as I’ve discovered while watching House Hunters, even if you’re not planning to move, it can be fun to see what’s available – and, O.K., to dream about owning such a place, and in our car-enthusiast’s case, owning the cars to fill all those garage stalls.

So lately I’ve been clicking through the various ads on www.carproperty.com, where you get to go inside Nicholas Cage’s place on Newport Beach and the 20-car property formerly owned by Steve McQueen. You also get to see lakeside and mountain hideaways with spectacular views – and great garages.

You can dream about buying 17 acres on old Route 66 complete with a 1950’s café, two vintage gas stations, a car wash and plenty of garage space. O.K., they’re real fixer-uppers, but it doesn’t cost anything to dream.

O.K., back to the ads… Hey, I just found a 10-car property not far from my daughter’s town house. I wonder if they’d be interested.