Adding a Garage with ADU/ Mother-In-Law

[Ryan Cronauer]

I am looking to BRRR a property in the St. Petersburg / Tampa Florida area. I want a multi-family property but they are extremely hard to come by, leading them to be a bit overpriced when they do pop up. Properties that have an ADU already are also quite expensive and oftenn require a ton of work to fix up on top of it. I'm trying to get creative with how to add an ADU / Mother-In-Law suite. My thought is to buy a 2/2 property with ally access behind it (very common in St. Pete) and build a garage (hard to find in the area) with a living area above. I believe this MAY provide an easy way to not only force appreciation buy also make the property cash-flow a whole lot easier.

Does anyone have any experience with this? About how much would this cost? What is the easiest/cheapest/best way to accomplish this? I've looked into prefabbed structures and considered buying a blueprint that makes sense and reaching out to contractors to get quotes but I'm not sure what the right path is.

 

[David Frandsen]

I have a lot of experience with ADU's in California. Not sure what the rules are there but can tell you what is working here. Finding a lot with an alley can be good for the access. We like lots that are zoned multifamily because here you can build two detached ADU's. Two story is an option but the construction costs go up (price per square foot). Have contractors give you an average price per square foot to build and then add in the soft costs (permitting, design fees, water/sewer fees, structural engineering if needed). If the rents can justify the financing needed to build the ADU then go for it.