Federal Way - Duplex laws

[Jeremy Benezra]

I purchased a house in Federal Way at the foreclosure auction.  It’s near Military Road S and 288th.  My question is can I make this a legal duplex and rent out the upstairs and downstairs separately?

As I bought the house at the foreclosure auction, I wasn’t able to see the interior beforehand.  So I wasn’t sure if it would be a flip or rental, but from driving the house I could see the garage had been converted to living space.  Yesterday I did a Cash for Keys exchange, changed the locks, and took possession.

Walking through the house, I’m trying to decide what to do with it.  Now that I’m inside I see this as a better rental than flip.  It’s a split level of sorts – there’s a Main level, an Upstairs above that, then a Ground level that used to be the garage but was converted.

On the Main level is the kitchen, family room, 3 bedrooms, full bath with washer and dryer.  Upstairs from the main level is a half size floor composed of a large bonus room, an office (no closet but I could add one to make it a bedroom), and a full bathroom.

On the Ground level is 2 bedrooms, a ¾ bath, and a room that was used as a kitchen/family/laundry room – there’s another washer and dryer connection here and a half kitchen.

Electrical, plumbing, and heating are not split between upstairs and downstairs, though downstairs has in-wall cadet heaters.  So there will have to be some friendliness/cooperation between the tenants upstairs and downstairs.

The whole house needs to be fixed up, but in general the house has good bones and the garage conversion was pretty well done.

I see a lot of benefits from splitting into 2 units as opposed to renting the whole house out.  I’d either have one unit that’s a 5 bed, 2.75 bath with a couple bonus rooms and an office.  OR I’d have 2 units, the first being a 3 bed, 2 bath with bonus room and office PLUS a second unit being a 2 bed .75 bath.

I don’t want to do the remodel work for 2 kitchens and then have the City say I can’t operate it as a duplex.  Is there a way to legally make this a duplex without having to separate the mechanical systems?  County has the zoning listed as R.

What would you do in this situation?

What about refinancing?  Will it be more difficult to refinance with my 2 tenants and 2 leases vs if I had the whole house rented out to one tenant?

Thanks!