Thinking about purchasing with intent to convert garage or build ADU.

[Dylan Greytak]

Does anyone in the Tampa area have experience with converting garages into studios or converting a large room into an ADU?

I have been actively looking for a small MFH in the Tampa Bay Area to house hack for the past 4 months now. Every good deal I see seems to get scooped up before I can get an offer in and I am getting tired of tossing 2k a month to my landlord. 

This brings me to the thought of buying a SFH and converting it so I can house hack.

Has anyone found this to be a solid strategy in our area?

If so, what can I expect to spend converting a 2 car garage? What about a small studio adu?

I am pretty handy, and my job allows me a lot of free time during the day, so I would probably do most of the work myself.

[Wesley Davis]

Great thinking and I have 3 projects just like this going through permitting. The cliché thing to say is every house is different and it depends on the extent of work/complexity that you are doing. For example, converting an attached garage into air conditioned space is different than converting a detached garage into an ADU. Different in the sense of county regulations and requirements. The list goes on.

I do not personally own any of these properties (yet), I am the architect that helps you get this approved and works with your contractor to make sure they are doing the work correctly. 

Now the fun part, price. I depends on the same factors listed above. But I may be able to help ballpark. 

If you converting un-air conditioned rooms into air conditioned rooms or adding new bathrooms. you will need to go through the permitting process with the county/city. To do so you will need to hire a licensed professional (architect/structural engineer) to prepared documents for submission. Hiring that person and preparing the docs will run you anywhere from $2,500-$4,000 (depending on the complexity of the project). The permitting fees with the county will run you a couple hundred and the construction cost really depends on the type of materials you are using. expect to pay your contractor (if you use one) 10% of the construction cost as their upcharge/fee.

It is more expensive than most people think to do so but there are plenty of ways to reduce this cost and get creative. So don't let this scare you. If you are looking at a property here in the Tampa-ish area feel free to reach out.  

And for others who may be reading this outside of Tampa, your costs will vary depending on where you live. In a bigger city, expect to pay more. In the middle of nowhere, expect to pay less.