An accessory dwelling unit is a secondary, self-contained living unit on the same lot as a primary home, a detached backyard cottage, a converted garage, a basement apartment, or an attached in-law suite.
Log in to followMy house sits on a corner lot with room behind the garage, and two different builders have told me a small detached unit would rent for something like $1,600 here. The income part…
I've been circling the service side of this for a while and finally sold something concrete: a pre-design feasibility screen for owners thinking about a backyard unit. Flat $850,…
I've been reading construction lending mechanics for a few months and the ADU version keeps snagging on the same place, which is that the money going in and the value coming out a…
I've been talking to a few homeowners about their backyard unit plans and I keep ending up as the person who calls the building department, collects contractor bids and keeps the…
Trying to do this carefully rather than fast, and I've now been careful for eleven months, so here are the actual numbers in the hope somebody tells me which question I should be…
I've got a few rentals and I'm hitting a wall on down payments, so the ADU thing looks like a way to add a unit without buying more dirt. My own house has a detached two-car garag…
Bought a 1940s house last spring with a full basement, 7'9" ceilings, separate side entrance already there. The plan was a one bedroom basement ADU, rent it long term, keep living…
First rental is coming and it looks like it's going to be a house with a detached cottage in the back rather than the duplex I originally wanted. Which means I have to decide whic…
Our county rewrote its ADU rules last spring and the new text is 26 pages. I read it because I was curious, and then I made a two page plain summary: what sizes are allowed by lot…
Priced a 700 sq ft detached at $150,000 hard cost, which I was comfortable with. Then the site work came in. Existing 4 inch clay lateral, plumber won't tie a second dwelling into…
Passive position, $150k into a small fund building detached ADUs in a permissive metro and selling them to homeowners as a turnkey product financed by the homeowner. Two year proj…
I've spent about a year trying to work out which strategy actually fits, and building a backyard cottage kept failing the same test for me: I don't have $180k and I don't have the…
I'd rather build something that holds up for years without me fussing over it, so I've been slow about the whole thing. Where it actually stands right now is this. Detached 700 sq…
My mortgage broker mentioned in passing that starting in 2026 I can use projected rent from an ADU to help qualify for the loan on the house I'd be living in. I do a lot of due di…
I called my insurance agent to ask what happens when the backyard unit is done and she said the current homeowners policy won't cover a rented second dwelling, that we'd need to r…
Detached 480 sf one bedroom, prefab shell set on a slab in my backyard, finished last fall. Renting at $1,595. Total spend $131,400 including site work, utility runs, permits, and…
Two adjacent infill lots in a first-ring suburb, bought in 2021 at $71k and $78k. The thesis was that the state was moving on ADU-enabling legislation and the city would follow, a…
Getting quotes on the paper stage for a detached unit behind a house I already own and the soft costs are stacking up faster than I expected. Feasibility and zoning review $2,500.…
I own a couple of small buildings and I've started looking at a single-family house down the street that has a finished basement with its own entrance, a kitchenette and a full ba…
I've been holding two single family rentals in the same city for nine years and doing nothing clever with either. The city just passed an ordinance that removes the parking requir…