All Forum Posts by: Raj Goel

@Byron Valles - thank you so much for sharing. Huge difference in price with being GC yourself. In your appraisal report, is the ADU appraised separately? If so, would you mind sharing the breakdown? As others have commented in this post, ADU doesn't appraise as well per sq ft as the main home. Thank you.

I am allowed to build 2 ADUs, one detached, one attached (will do garage conversion), 800 sq ft each.

And thank you for the reality check. There's no reason why my ADU process will be faster than yours, so will go with your timelines.

LOL :)

@Travis Biziorek - would like to hear your advice, since you are in the process of building an ADU in California.

Sorry I did not understand this strategy.

One of my big constraints is that we do not want to move from our current home. We love our current home. More than me, it will be harder to convince my wife to move. Moving every year just to do BRRR on those homes OR get a lower interest rate is out of the question. Besides, moving comes with its own time and expenses, we have been through that in the past, we hated it. We are considering househacking to make our current home work for us.

Really appreciate everybody's responses here. It's a wonderful community of experts willing to advise.

@Carlos Ptriawan - sorry I didn't understand. Are you buying a rehab house with ADU and then moving into it? Can you please elaborate?

@Dan H. - understood, thank you.

Thank you all, for the comments. It’s helping me understand my options better.

From what I understand, Fannie / Freddie do conforming loans only, whereas most SFH in bay area (in expensive neighborhoods) are in multi-million $ range so they are most probably non-conforming/jumbo loans.

In Nov 2023, a SFH home in my neighborhood with a detached ADU sold in one week at 10% above asking price (3.5M -> 3.85M). So I am not seeing evidence of ADUs creating a problem with property prices in Bay Area.

@Dan H.

@Dan H. -

Is your concern regarding building 2 ADUs on a lot, or building any ADUs at all?

I have written confirmation from the city planning dept — "State law currently allows for one detached ADU, one attached ADU, and one JADU (conversion of space no more than 500 sf)." But honestly I have not read this anywhere, so there may be a misunderstanding with the city. I have read we are allowed one ADU and one JADU on a property.

Also, curious, what is your opinion on recent California law AB-1033 that allows property owners to sell ADUs on their lots as condos? I think it may create a problem when selling the entire property on which the new condo sits.

@Dan H. - thank you for your extensive comments. Helps a lot in evaluating implications of building ADUs on primary residence.