All Forum Posts by: John A Murray

Maybe you could back out of it, request a refund and apply again later? With thousand$ on the line anything is worth a try.

Only out of the goodness of their heart Bruce. Bummer.

Dennis, David has posted photos of his ADU here; a very nice and clean interior. He did have a very inexpensive contractor.

With the new laws the plan check and permit fees for my garage conversion will be around 3k.  David M. is gonna buy me dinner when I beat his cost!

Great idea Barbie but I would purchase a 3-4 BR SFR (with a detached large garage) that has the capability of spawning a JADU from one of the bedrooms bathrooms and converting the garage into an ADU. Plenty of opportunity to capitalize on his skills yet saving a fortune by passing on new construction. Even better, however, if someone has gone to the expense of building/converting into an ADU, and willing to sell for the low appraised value that SFR's with an ADU generate I'd certainly be interested in that, as long as the SFR is capable of easily converting a bed/bath into a JADU. The cash flow generated would be awesome but the value less so.

Jeez I bet they are charging you for this inspection. Certainly qualifies as a junk fee. What a joke! 

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Our architect took the plans downtown to submit but the city found some issue with Title 24 stuff, so that is being corrected now, hopefully to submit this week. He's been used to over the counter approvals here so somewhat surprised. City said 4-6 weeks for approval. 

Still pretty pleased about the state disallowing the $5k impact fees. Hope the city doesn't plan on any other way to get in our wallets.

I believe that state law just prohibited that requirement for five years, at which time it will be reviewed.

I'll answer that. No.

Gonna take some time; meanwhile enjoy the cash flow.

@Matthew Forrest I have heard otherwise so still not sure. I'll know in 4-6 weeks, as that's how long the city said yesterday my plan check will take.

That's it Matt. I would have put more windows in personally. There are a couple of folks here who have also done garage conversions for around 80k sf. One posted pictures that showed a clean and attractive interior, nothing fancy but nothing to be ashamed of, and perfect for a rental unit. Just like Matt's friend's. Living next to a huge college (CSULB) I anticipate renting to college students when I do rent. As such my plan is to keep it simple, leaving the interior as open and as well sun-lighted as possible, as a studio. I'll pretty up the shower walls and the counter tops and install nice flooring but every thing else will be basic; everything with a focus on durability and ease of cleaning. I'll top it off with a tankless water heater and a mini ductless unit and sub-meter the electricity but prob not the water. Thankfully the $5k developer impact fees are history which will keep my fees around only a few thousand.

My architect went downtown yesterday to submit the plans, hoping for an over the counter approval, but was told no more OTC approvals for ADU's; and that it will take 4-6 weeks. I hope the city doesn't come up with any new change$ in the meantime.