All Forum Posts by: Caleb MacDonald

Thank you very much for the insights!

Hi all.

I've been looking for potential house hacking properties on Oahu and have found several on the MLS that come with 4 separate units. It all cases 3 of the 4 units have a reduced kitchen meaning that either there is no stove (only a cooktop) or the refrigerator is in a different room. These properties all seem to have been modified to their current condition as quadplexes, but I've also read that only one or now maybe two ADUs are permitted per property.

Bottom line is that ADU limitation rules as I read them would not allow 4 units to exist on one residential property, so how is it that these properties have four units? I suspect that because they don't have "full" kitchens they can skirt the ADU rules.

I may be interested in buying a single family or duplex and adding more units to it to bring it up to four total units, but I would like to understand how the kitchen design would allow me to do this legally. Does anyone have knowledge on this?   

Thanks BP community!

Hello BP! 

I'm looking at househacking multifamily properties (2-4 units) and find that some potential properties are not individually metered for electric. The prospect of covering the electric bill for all tenants, even if this expense in figured into their rent, is unappealing for two reasons. First, I feel that it disincentivizes conservation because from the tenants point of view someone else is paying for the electricity while their rent remains fixed regardless of the amount they use. Second, I am investing in Honolulu HI which has double the national average cost rate for electricity. So I think I want to install individual meters for each tenant and shift the expense to them. A quick google search tells me to expect this to run $500-$600 per unit.

Has anyone out their in the BP community faced this scenario and have any lessons learned? Do these installation numbers sound accurate? Anything that I'm not thinking of?

Thanks much,

Caleb