Refinancing on home with ADU larger than primary

Refinancing on home with ADU larger than primary

Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 14 posts · 5 votes

Looking for advice on refinancing a SFH with an ADU on the lot in San Diego, CA as owner/builder who was planning on living in the ADU and renting out the front house.

We went through the entire loan process, got documents signed, appraisal done, closing disclosures, etc -- and at the very end, we were told that the refi loan is getting denied because Fannie Mae guidelines don't allow for ADU's to be larger than the primary house, and the appraiser won't write it as a 2-unit because it's not zoned for such (which is understandable). The ADU is ~1200 sq ft, the primary house is 1014 sq ft. Both the city and county of San Diego specifically allow ADU's to be larger than the primary home, as long as they're 1200 sq ft or less, and it's fully-permitted/signed off.

I feel like this is something the loan agent and lender should have known/told us about up-front, but they said they didn't know. We gave full disclosure on all the specs and specifics on sq footage before starting the loan.

In terms of credibility -- the two units appraised at just over 1.1 million, and we're only looking for ~390K refinance loan. We both make many times more than would have been required in income from our day jobs, have 800+ credit scores, and much more in savings/assets than would be required -- I feel like this should have been a slam-dunk refi. 

So I guess this is both a word of caution when building an ADU until Fannie Mae updates their conforming guidelines, as well as a question to anyone out there who knows of "non-conforming" or loans with good rates for this type of situation that aren't sold to Fannie Mae/etc.

Thanks for any info.

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Dan H.Pro Member
Investor · Poway, CA · Member since 2015 · 7k+ posts · 8k+ votes
5y

I have seen so much variation in the treatment of ADU re-financing that it is almost a crap shoot. I have seen them treated the same as a duplex even when not zoned for such, but it was in an area close to where such zoning was present (so appraiser apparently did not check the zoning). I have seem pathetically low appraisals associated with the ADU and appraisals associated with the ADU that come near valuing it at about the price per square foot (PSF) for the area (note the PSF is typically still far less than the hands off cost of adding an ADU)

Look into Figure.com to see how they are valuing properties with an ADU without appraisal and giving loans. I have to believe that they are not Fannie/Freddie but maybe they are. Also with your outstanding loan qualifications, you can likely find a bank that would finance with intent to keep the loan in-house. It may come with slightly worse terms but you seem very low risk so you may get similar terms.

I believe you will find fine financing.  The risky appraisal is already complete.  It will just take more work than if your first lender had come through (BTW I would never use that lender again - being able to close on the loan is my highest priority in my lender).

@Dave Foster knows virtually everything about lending.  Maybe he has more or better suggestions than what I provided.

Good luck

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  • Dan H.Pro Member
    Investor · Poway, CA · Member since 2015 · 7k+ posts · 8k+ votes
    5y

    I have seen so much variation in the treatment of ADU re-financing that it is almost a crap shoot. I have seen them treated the same as a duplex even when not zoned for such, but it was in an area close to where such zoning was present (so appraiser apparently did not check the zoning). I have seem pathetically low appraisals associated with the ADU and appraisals associated with the ADU that come near valuing it at about the price per square foot (PSF) for the area (note the PSF is typically still far less than the hands off cost of adding an ADU)

    Look into Figure.com to see how they are valuing properties with an ADU without appraisal and giving loans. I have to believe that they are not Fannie/Freddie but maybe they are. Also with your outstanding loan qualifications, you can likely find a bank that would finance with intent to keep the loan in-house. It may come with slightly worse terms but you seem very low risk so you may get similar terms.

    I believe you will find fine financing.  The risky appraisal is already complete.  It will just take more work than if your first lender had come through (BTW I would never use that lender again - being able to close on the loan is my highest priority in my lender).

    @Dave Foster knows virtually everything about lending.  Maybe he has more or better suggestions than what I provided.

    Good luck

  • Rental Property Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2011 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    5y

    Great question, the grey areas in ADU's are huge. One thought, I'm working on a similar project.


    In Oceanside, there is a process (likely just a designation formality) that basically allows you to designate the existing SFR as the ADU and the new construction ADU as the SFR. I believe likely to be done in this case, when the ADU is larger. Or.. to allow you more building flexibility.

    This could be something as simple as stating, "The city allows us to swap designations, the ADU we built is now considered the home, the smaller structure is the ADU". 

    The situation might be tainted with this lender, but I would be very interested to hear how it goes if you approached it with a new lender and kept the story straight that the bigger structure is the house. You might be in the clear. Keep us posted. 

  • Real Estate Broker · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 355 posts · 195 votes
    5y

    @Benjamin Fishler I agree with option @Tim G. mentioned. Yes a more knowledgable LO would have foreseen possible issues, if they're a broker, it could be as simple as moving the file to a different lender if the current lender still has an issue. 

  • Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 14 posts · 5 votes
    5y

    Thank you all for the great information.... a bit of an update, the broker did actually reach out directly to their contact at Fannie Mae, and was told by them that they would make no exception to the ADU being larger than the primary house -- so they said we probably wouldn't have much luck with another lender (that, and the rate lock was at least 0.5% lower than what's available now). The lender also had a problem with the ADU having a separate house #, which is what the addressing department with the city of San Diego auto-assigns -- they wanted an "a"/"b" or "1/2" etc, not two separate numbers...not sure if that's a problem with Fannie Mae though.

    The did say to try credit unions since not all of them will sell the mortgage to Fannie Mae.

    We did think about trying to petition the city to switch the primary and ADU, but the two problems with that is a) There's almost a zero chance the city would get that done fast enough before rate lock expires and b) I worry that while it may be easy to switch the designation now, it may not be so easy down the line -- and if I ever want to remodel the first (original) house, i'll be limited to the 1,200 sq ft limit on ADU's if I can't get them changed back.

    I think the laws/guidelines just need to catch up with the current explosion of ADU's (at least in California)... so I did what I could, which was write to the federal representatives for my area...Obviously won't help my case now, but may be able to get things updated if enough of us speak up.

  • Real Estate Broker · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 355 posts · 195 votes
    5y

    @Benjamin Fishler thanks for the update, please keep us posted!

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