Home Addition Remodel with attached ADU project

[Miguel Bueno]

First timer here...

Planning to do an attached ADU/Addition/Remodel project soon in Milpitas. Currently overwhelmed on where/how to start... House is over 40 yrs old and worried about foundation and structure issues. Would love to avoid having to do a complete tear down. Like some of the current project homes around my area.

House is a 1100sf 3br/2ba single story L shape home in a 6300sf lot. 

Plans:

- 2br/2ba 18x40 720sf attached ADU on the back of the garage and the side of house.

- Need to do a 550-600sf addition Kitchen/Living room/half bath/Laundry space (this will attach current home and adu together)

- Remodel current home


Would an architect be able to assess my land to see if I have any foundation or structural issues? Ideally, I would love to get my land inspected first to see if I will need to do a complete tear down. This will actually will be a deciding factor for me, I assume that a complete tear down project will increase my budget a lot. Also I'm trying to avoid having to hire and pay an architect for the drawings, if I do decide not to continue that project.

Any advice on what to do or where to start would be great... Thanks in advance!