ADU Zoning and House Hacking

[Bryan Tench]

Hey everyone,

I am a new investor in the Denver metro area. My wife and I are looking to House Hack our first property. We are considering making an offer on a single family home this weekend. The home is unique in that it has a separate entrance to the basement and an easily configurable entrance to a great little studio area with a half bath. Our strategy is to live in the basement level, rent out the main floor on a traditional lease and AirBnB the studio area. It would require minor mods to support this strategy but I'm not too familiar with zoning limitations and risks. Since it is a SFH we would need to add somewhat of a kitchen to the basement so we could live in it. Zoning Ordinance for this home limits the ADU to <700 sqft and 1 bd. The basement is larger than 700 sq feet so my question is when does this become an issue? Does that mean that upon re-sale we simply cannot advertise it as a SFH w/ ADU or is there a immediate risk to us living there while renting our the main floor?