Read this post and I just had to add my two cents.
I bought a condo (carriage style) in '99 that in addition to my own ATTACHED garage, sits over a DETACHED double car garage. Detached. Meaning the condo that is part and parcel to it, is not attached directly to it. The individuals who live in that condo and use the garage are renters who've rented longer than I've owned. The situation has been an ongoing thorn in my side pretty much from the beginning, but has gotten worse in the last several years. Reason? From what I can tell, none of the 4 occupants work, so that means they are ALWAYS home and what do they do?? They open and close their garage door excessively. Every. Single. Day. For the most part, they're not even coming or going in their cars. For some weird, and I can't figure it out, reason, they mostly abstain from using the small access door in favor of, you got it, opening and shutting the big garage door. In the past I've (nicely) talked to them about it, and they either think I'm nuts, or that I'm just being a pain in the a**. It is true that if you are standing outside in front of it and it's raised or lowered, it's not terribly noisy. But inside my place, it's another story. I realize that I'm going to hear something, of course, I don't expect not to. Believe me, I wouldn't have an issue with it if they were like any other neighbor of mine, (including myself) and open the big door 2 to 3 times a day. That I could deal with. But excessively, it's not fun. There have been numerous occasions over the many years that while home and paying attention, the door will be opened and closed at least 10 times a day. It's opened, and 2 minutes later, closed. In another 15 minutes, it's opened again, couple minutes later, closed...and NO cars are going anywhere!!!! This goes on all the time. When they do use the small access door, more often than not, it's not closed quietly.
So, my advice is, think long and hard about purchasing this type of unit. If I had known prior to buying, I NEVER would've bought mine. But then again, I just happened to get extremely unlucky in buying a place over neighbors who are probably the biggest losers in the complex.
