All Forum Posts by: Franklin Marquette

Hello BP,

Quick question for the group here. For luxury units, have you found that renters care about having larger 42 inch vanities in their bathrooms vs 30 inch? I am in the process of building 2 2 bed 2 bath ADUs. Downstairs bathrooms will have 42 inch vanities, 9 ft ceilings. Upstairs, unless I add an extra foot onto the ADU and have the engineers redo all their work, will need to have 30 inch vanities given the space the staircase takes up.

These units in my area (Los Feliz, LA) are expected to rent for ~$4,000/mo each. I am trying to ascertain whether its with the heartburn to redesign and get the 42 inch vanities upstairs as well as downstairs for both ADUs.

Thanks!

Franklin

Makes sense. Perhaps I have an odd case but I paid $1.35M or $455 / sq ft for a 3,000 sq ft duplex on a 7,000 sq ft lot in Los Feliz.

Once I add the ADU complex, which will be around $350K, it will be a quadplex, 4,600 sq ft of living space.

If I got 1:1 value for the ADU, that would imply $1.70M for the property. I have never seen a quadplex in Los Feliz / Silverlake sell for less than $2.00M.

Now I did get a good deal on the house because it needed a lot of work, all in all will probably end up spending $500K between the ADU and the renovations (hopefully). Part of the investment thesis was getting it for a bargain, then building an ADU complex on it as affordably as possible, getting it to cash flow, and realizing value on both the rental income but also property appreciation given the work going into it.

If the property will really only be worth ~$1.70M once we are finished, I will likely just stop the project now and exit the house as soon as possible.

If you do not get dollar for dollar for projects such as this, how would house flipping ever work? Or the house construction industry in general where they build for $X and sell for $X+margin?

Thanks both.

Would you say just as a general conservative estimate that the ADU $ / sq ft might be 50% of the main house? So lets say if homes were selling for a median of $450, an estimate for the ADU may be $225? Or is that too aggressive?

Just trying to sort out an assumption so I can plug it into the model I build and calc post-construction LTV and sale assumptions. Idea is I may just sell the property the moment the project and renovation is finished.

For context, the ADUs will be 2 2bed 2 bath units, 800 sq ft each, 1,600 sq ft total. In this area, can expect around $4K/mo for units such as this. Cost to build is $350K (I am managing it all myself and calling in favors around the city to get low rates on materials and labor).

When building ADUs, do they generally create value uplift for the property in the same way that the main house is valued?

That is, if the median $/sq ft for an area is, say, $450. Would any new ADU sq ft add $450 / sq ft to the property value OR would it be at a discount because it is an ADU? I know there is of course no set rule out there but just curious on folk's experiences.

Also curious to know folk's thoughts on what the CONSERVATIVE median $/sq ft for the Los Feliz / Silverlake area on LA is.

Thanks all!

Hey all,

Just wanted to introduce myself - bought a duplex in Los Feliz over the summer with a few business partners and will be renovating the property while living there. Also will be adding two ADUs in the back to turn the whole place into a 4 unit rental. Then I p;an to move out and find another project.

I am excited to join the forums and learn from the vast wealth of knowledge on here, as well as (hopefully) benefit the community with some of my own learnings.

Look forward to the journey.

Franklin

Hello all,

What have you seen re: water meters. Located in Los Angeles County (Los Feliz, 90027 zip). Property is zoned R2-1XL so pretty sure I can only have two main water meters. Right now the two units I have share one. As I transition the property to a duplex + 2 ADUs, I am considering spending $10K+ to get another master meter put in. Then think I could have 2 sub meters put in (believe the limit is 1 per main water meter). All units would be metered so data would be there to bill the tenants (so no ability to question the bill) but landlord would still pay the bill given we can not have 4 main master water meters (can only do 2 x1 master meter + x1 sub meter combinations). 

I could also just do RUBS on each of the 4 units based on # of occupants or square footage or another method (which is best???). This would not cost anything BUT tenants may be able to argue over bill more and I know RUBS has sometimes been outlawed in certain jurisdictions so would be less future proof. Also know that upon sale sometimes the presence of more water meters increases value.

Curious to understand the forum's opinion on the best water meter configuration given costs OR if it’s just not worth it and I should leave the one master meter and stick with RUBS on all 4 units. Either way, could always have the plumbers plumb the system to make it easy to put each unit on its own meter in future (so long as it’s not crazy expensive).

Unit Configurations Below for Reference:

x2 2 bed 2 bath, 800 sq ft

x1 2 bed 1 bath, 1,000 sq ft

x1 3 bed 3 bath, 2,000 sq ft

Thank you all - this is extremely helpful!

For those of you that require your tenants to have renter's insurance, how much liability insurance do you require of the tenant?

Thanks!

Hello,

I have a slightly special financing situation. Wanted to poll the group before I submitted an official lender search to see if anybody had specific folks they suggest. Any help is appreciated. Situation overview is below.

Thanks!

+++

Address: 4535 Kingswell Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90027.

Property Description: Duplex. Upstairs until 2 bed 1 bath ~1,000 sq ft. Downstairs unit 5 bed 3 bath ~2,000 sq ft. Garage ~400 sq ft.

Situation: Plan to build 2 new 2 bed 2 bath ADUs in the back of the property. These will be ~700 sq ft each.

Valuation and Current Loan: Property appraised for $1,530M when purchased back in July. Currently in process of securing refi loan with US Bank at 6.25%. Loan balance will be around $1,105M. Funds tomorrow.

Ask: Looking for ~$200K second, delayed draw would be optimal, not sensitive to interest rate. Just need the financing to close funding gap on the new ADU construction. Estimate for construction is $400K, half paid with this financing the other half with cash on hand. Plan would be to refi whole property once construction is finished under one loan.

Issues: Would like the first mortgage to remain as it is at 6.25%. 4 other people own the home. I own the majority (~54%) and live in the downstairs unit. There are non-occupant co-borrowers on the first mortgage. I work in finance where a lot of my income is in a year end bonus and, unfortunately, I just started a new job so lenders are unable to use my bonus income. As a result, I will likely not qualify for a $200K second by myself and will need non-occupant co-borrowers on that as well, which is problematic for many second lien lenders.

Just wanted to follow up here, does anyone out there have any thoughts? Thanks!