All Forum Posts by: David Frandsen

@Khen S. Ok. Very interesting. I'm just going to think out loud and see if anything sticks. My first thought is the ADU would likely be the fastest and cheapest way to a second unit. (assuming the basement is a permitted part of the original house). Being under 500 sq ft you will avoid impact fees and school fees (and maybe others- not familiar with LA).

If you are willing to invest more time and money into the property I would look to go the multifamily route. With no personal experience in this (only familiarity with ADU's) I would make that SFR a duplex by converting the basement. Then this presumably opens up the door to build the additional two ADU's that are allowed on multifamily properties.

@Khen S. Can you clarify... When you say "regular dwelling" are you referring to a scenario where you keep the main house on the property and build an additional house? This is my assumption. 

It looks like that zoning is 2000 sq ft. per dwelling unit. So if your lot is at least 4000 square feet you can presumably build that second unit if your setbacks allow. The ADU law allows two ADU's in addition to the primary dwellings. In this scenario you end up with 4 units essentially. (2 primary and 2 ADU's)

@Victor G. Some really good considerations here. All of which I would consider. If you do decide to go gas I believe you can forgo adding a separate meter. Of course this would mean you would be paying for the gas. But this is of least priority to me compared to having the tenant pay electric and water. Just build it into your rent. 

My vote would be all electric though. 

@Gadiel Del Orbe where are you located? You will want to consult a draftsman or architect to draw your plans. If engineering is required they will usually have an engineer they work with. 

@Sean Oh If it is an illegal ADU for an original permitted structure (i.e an original detached garage) the process for getting it legal is doable. This does not sound like what you have.

If it is a shed and you get a code violation/red tagged from the city you will run into problems when you go to sell. Or they may give you a certain amount of time to rectify (i.e tear out the ADU).

Good luck. 

@Oscar Moncada @Maxwell Ventura is putting on a meetup with a talk on ADU's in early november. If that is something that interests you should check it out.

This was a great event last time around. I'd encourage everyone to come on down, meet new people and learn some good info. 

@Darren Tunstall cool story! Great to hear. 

@Zi Wang You might be able to do an attached ADU as an "addition" to the main house. This would allow you to remodel the main house so you can get a natural entrance from the front of the property. The only issue is i've heard you may not be able to have two "front doors." But I would pursue that route.

I'm interested to hear some appraisal stories on these ADU properties also. I've heard they can appraise wildly different.