Tenant buyer move-in went smoother than expected and the ADU in the backyard is what made it work
My tenant buyer on a lease option in Greensboro had a hard time qualifying partly because her debt load was high enough that a conventional lender kept backing away. The property had a permitted ADU, a detached unit, maybe 520 square feet behind the main house. She was already renting both. What changed the picture was that the ADU income, documented with a lease and two years of deposits showing in her bank statements, counted toward her qualifying income when she finally went to a portfolio lender in late 2023. Not a huge number, $875 a month, but it pushed her ratio just far enough. She closed in February. I structured the option with a 36-month window and she exercised at month 19. The ADU was not something I marketed. I almost listed that property without even mentioning it prominently because I was focused on the main house square footage. The lender she eventually used was the one who flagged it as an asset. I would have left money and time on the table if I had not started leading with both units from the beginning.
