All Forum Posts by: Sammy Lyon

@Rick Albert Impressive!! Those 203(k) loans are hard to navigate, and you must have had a great GC working with you on the payment draws... would love to hear more about your experience!

Hey Shira, are you building one in Washington? 

Hi Jamila! That's so great...I would love to hear more about your build and how it's going, lessons learned so far. I have not personally been involved with a sale or refi where the appraiser came in low, but one of the issues is comparable sales. Typically an appraiser is using comps like a real estate agent would, and taking into account square footage, condition of the property, etc. But...there's not a ton to compare it to (yet!) so that's part of the issue.

100% would love an appraiser to pop on here to explain more why that might happen as I am not one myself, but similarly to how lenders overall have not yet caught up with ADU regulations (and won't count the rental income toward your DTI as they would on a multifamily), I think there's not enough properties with ADUs for appraisers to have reliable comps. That's my take on why this would happen!

 Thank Mark, that makes more sense! Are you planning to build one?

Hey Nate are they also legalizing ADU's in Tulsa? It seems to be spreading a lot.

Hi Dan! I think the format will end up being a publicly available live Zoom class...like everything else nowadays. sigh.

Hi Will! I'm not sure what your question is. He's built several ADUs and is working on putting together lessons learned. He asked me to help find out what questions folks have on building and permitting an ADU, and since I love the Bigger Pockets community and know that folks here people are engaged in resource-sharing, I put the question here. I don't know what's in the presentation :) that's the whole point! He is my partner on other business ventures, there are not going to be 2 separate presentations... I am going to help him moderate his class with crowdsourced questions and I am also interested myself in building an ADU. Thanks for your feedback!

 I'll share when he has more info! 

 The requirements are definitely changing, and there is SO much opportunity to use ADUs to increase multifamily density at a human scale. I know there have been some changes to Floor Area Ratios with the new guidelines, so that's definitely a question he'll want to address!

Hi @Liliana Gurganus! 

That's so great you are doing it....homeowner developer! That's why I love ADU's as the middle ground between house hacking your own house and buying multifamily investments. I would love to hear how it is going for you as the process definitely seems daunting. That's why I'm helping put this together -- selfishly as a Realtor I want to make sure I know the process inside and out as I have a lot of clients who want to build an ADU. I'll pass along the questions.

As far as I know, the property tax evaluation takes into account the addition. What's not clear yet is how appraisers handle this (in case you want to refinance). You'd think it increases your property value, especially since from a tax-perspective it does, but I've heard from a lot of colleagues that appraisers are not necessarily giving higher values for ADU on the property...in some cases even lower values!