All Forum Posts by: David Maldonado

Hey everyone,

I am thinking about using a HELOC soon to build an ADU my property. My bank offers up to 100% LTV for a primary residence. My one year occupancy is coming up and would like to know if having a balance on a HELOC or even just initiating one would affect me when I try to buy my next Owner occupied home? I would like to use the HELOC as a "Mortgage" for the ADU and just have the unit pay the loan over time while cash flowing.

What's up BP,

After seeing that the majority of tenants do not have reserves for situations like the Covid-19 pandemic, I was thinking about offering an emergency rent savings plan for future tenants. This would be voluntary and would be part of the lease if the tenants decide to choose this option. An example would be charging an extra $100 on top of the rent and could only be used for emergency situations like losing their source of income. If they decide to move out at the end of their lease, then their money would be refunded.

Is this legal in California?

Sounds like a good idea for the future after this pandemic is over as it would ensure the tenants having reserves just like it is expected for landlords.

What do you guys think?

 This came from my architect. He said one of his plans for 2 units for one of his clients were rejected by the city. He told me to show the city the preliminary plans to see if there would be any issues before we move on. I'm going to find out myself on Thursday when I go directly to the city because I already got confirmation from the building inspector that inspected my jadu about being able to add a 2nd unit (adu).

Hey guys so my architect was in the process of drawing me up plans for my 2nd unit for house and he already experienced some push-back from the city for one of his other clients. So from my knowledge, we are allowed to have a jadu (500 sqft or less within an existing space) and an adu (detached or sharing a wall with the house above 500 sqft no more than 1200 sqft). So I already have a jadu (garage conversion to studio) and I want to build an adu about 600 sqft AND will be sharing a wall with the house in order to avoid solar. My city's building inspector sent me an email clarifying the solar requirements and in there it states that an adu is considered an "addition". According to my architect, apparently the city is saying that a jadu is not considered an "addition" which still shouldn't be a problem in accordance with the new bill. Can anyone tell me what I'm missing? I'm going to drop by the building department on Thursday and show them my preliminary plans for approval before I move forward but I want to know if anyone here would know why it possibly wouldn't be allowed?

 Yeah someone brought that up as well. My question is what if someone who met their 1 year occupancy for on their home wants to move into another owner occupied home but they have a jadu and an adu?

According to my city's inspectors: solar is only required if its a detached ADU separate from the house so for your scenario yes you be required to add solar. But if you build an attached adu (shares a wall with the main house) you do no need solar. It will also be considered an addition.

 It might be more convenient and will ease the utitlity cost between the units but I heard it can cost up to 10k for separate meters. I would just take over utilities, find a way to add a submeter to the adus, calculate power usage and then bill the adu tenants accordingly. You can just add the gas and water bill on top of the rent. 

 Hey Adam,

You're right its not that different than living in a multifamily but on the plus side we get to live in a residential neighborhood. I built a double wall with RC channels and inside that minimize the noise (could barely hear anything coming from the unit. I also have a decent size back yard and added a fence to the unit to separate the yards. My wife doesn't mind it at all because we still have our privacy It's not bad at all especially for some excellent cash flow.

 Good information! I wasn't aware of that for JADU. So how would it work if someone with 2 units decides they want to purchase another owner occupied home and keep the their current home with a jadu and adu as a rental?