THE ULTIMATE SEATTLE HOUSE HACK (no, it is not renting out rooms)

[Adrian Chu]

This is a summary of learnings from a recent project I personally completed.  

Steps involved:

1. Buy a home with a large backyard

2. Get permits to build a detached ADU (DADU)/backyard cottage in the backyard

3. Build the DADU for around $200k-300k. I used a construction loan.

4. Split the two homes into detached condos.  (The City of Seattle allows this. Most other cities do not.)

5. Sell the DADU for $500k-750k+ (or keep it as a rental and cash out refinance.)

6. You get a great house to live in $150k-300k less than what you would otherwise pay for OR sell the main house as well for maximum profit.

Photos are of a recent project from 2017. I was one of the early adopters for this kind of project. Ask me anything!

Original home (retained)

New DADU

[Michael Haas]

@Adrian Chu we've been extremely curious about that strategy - essentially "Condo-izing" a single family lot.

Was this a hold for you, or did you sell one or both of the units?

If you're willing to share any advice, pitfalls, or stories from this project I'd love to hear them. With this being such a new strategy there's not a lot of info out there, and even fewer folks who have already executed it successfully.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing! I voted for this post and if I could vote twice I would have.