All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

My contractor is not giving me the permit documents for final approval. There is still work pending,that he does not want to complete and is asking me to make the final payment in exchange for the documents.  

The permit has several signatures of the inspector. What are my options here? I am planning to go to the city office on Monday and explain the situation. I do not want him to make the final payment until all the work is done.

@Jason Hsiao do you have pictures of the in law unit that got done from 120-150k. just want to understand what can be done with this price target.

It is the bank that sent out the appraiser for refinance. I don't think they will approve using my own appraiser.

@Kent Baltare In one of the posts above you mentioned that for some of your ADU projects. The ADU added double the value. can you clarify more on that.

@Ethan Cooke thanks for the reply. This does makes sense long term but if I have to sell the house soon then I would likely be taking an loss unless I find a buyer who has extra cash to pay on top of the appraisal price. The way in which I built my unit is like another house on the side of the main house with has its own yard space and entrance from the street making the main house and ADU completely independent of each other. Only thing they share is the water meter.

Unless there are some standards on how to appraise the ADU unit, this is not going to be a great investment for short term because the cost of building ADU is huge in the bay area (The soft cost itself runs around 40k).

I am working on refinance of my single family home with an recently developed ADU unit in the bay area that cost little more than 300k to build and the appraiser only added 75k in value for the in law unit

The ADU unit is detached 2 bed/2bath/loft/kitchen with its own address and pge meter. rents for $2500

Is that a norm in the bay area for ADU properites or the appraiser had no clue on what he is doing.

If this is true then practically I lost money and 2 years of my time to get the design/approval and construction done and it looks like adding ADU does not make any sense in the bay area.

@Mike V. I could have got couple hundred more in rent. just did not do enough research.

I am more worried if I have to sell this house soon, in that case if we run into a similar appraiser, it would be hard for buyer to get loan. I was reading about  income capitalization approach for valuation which is more common in portland, I hope they bring that here as well.

I am working on refinance of my single family home with an recently developed ADU unit in the bay area that cost little more than 300k to build and the appraiser only added 75k in value for the in law unit

The ADU unit is detached 2 bed/2bath/loft/kitchen with its own address and pge meter. rents for $2500

Is that a norm in the bay area for ADU properites or the appraiser had no clue on what he is doing.

If this is true then practically I lost money and 2 years of my time to get the design/approval and construction done and it looks like adding ADU does not make any sense in the bay area.

Found this really nice article on appraising adu with income capitalization approach. Till the appraisers realize this, ADU will be bad investments if not renting for long terms.

https://accessorydwellings.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/appraisingpropertieswithadusbrownwatkinsnov2012.pdf

I am working on refinance of my single family home with an recently developed ADU unit in the bay area that cost a little over 300k to build and the appraiser only added 75k in value for the in law unit

The ADU unit is detached 2 bed/2bath/loft/kitchen with its own address and pge meter. It has been rented for $2495 but can easily be rented for $2700

Is that a norm in the bay area for ADU properites or the appraiser had no clue on what he is doing.

If this is true then practically I lost money and 2 years of my time to get the design/approval and construction done and it looks like adding ADU does not make any sense in the bay area.