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I have been looking to purchase a home for about 6 months and one of my criterias is to have direct access to the garage, but I keep on coming across houses that have attached garages, but no direct acess. What are the ways to remodel the house to give it direct access? Most of the houses have a bedroom sharing the wall with the garage, so I would prefer no to have to cut a hole in that wall, but is that the only way?

My homes had garages that opened into a back hallway which led to kitchen. In your case it probably means the garage was added on after house was built instead of during construction. Are the homes you are looking at older- maybe built in the 50s or 60s before it became commonplace to do so. Seems if you put access directly into a bedroom that would negatively affect the resale value of house. Keep looking if you can.

The other way would be a breezeway type of structure across the back of the house to an appropriate room. Of course, you are talking more money here.

Not having direct access is not always terrible. You may want to rethink it.

Interesting thread, thanks, OP, for posting it and I would have to say from a cost-effective point of view either give up on the direct access idea or keep searching.

Myself, I absolutely love the direct access from the garage into the kitchen in our "forever" home although it really never even crossed my mind when we were house hunting! If I had to do it again, that feature would be at the top of my list ~ lucky we got it without even looking for it!

BTW, my Dad built our family home in the early 1950's and spent several years designing it. It had 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, an over-sized 2 car attached garage (all almost un-heard of in those days) and the garage had direct access as well ~ for the firewood!

The garage shared a common wall with the LR and DR, firewood was stacked along the garage wall and delivered through the wall to the firewood box - Mom loved "no mess" and it was handy for Santa Claus as well!

Myself, I would keep looking for an attached garage with kitchen access; wouldn't want to buy a place that needed renovations immediately.

Years ago when I was looking for a house in Virginia I looked at one that didn't have direct access to the house. I think the garage on that one was beside the bedrooms as well. If it is against the bedrooms and there isn't a hallway unless you want to enter via the bedroom you're kind of stuck. I'd keep looking rather than trying to modify the house to allow direct access.