All Forum Posts by: Teri Feeney Styers

Okay - so I see the thread of this conversation was back in December... However, let me tell you about something I am doing. I am in Mesa County (Grand Junction) Colorado. County regs here don't require houses to be a certain size (although some subdivisions do). All homes must have: bathing space, sleeping space, cooking space. R-8 zoning allows you to split off as little as 3000 sq feet to create a new lot. However, what I have done is find existing homes with extra, accessible lot space. Our City allows you to build what they call Accessory Dwelling Units in backyards! I am currently converting a 3/2 with an odd floorplan into a 2/1 AND a "tiny house" apartment (180 sq ft). The lot is large so I am also splitting some off and plan to build a cottage (500-600 sq ft) with a tiny house (240 sq ft) behind it. In theory, the lot is "free" - although there are most definitely costs involved in the process and I have seen comments about this that are dead-on: you don't get a break just because you are building a small house. The cost for a sewer tap, etc. is the same. I can only make this work because I am working with a run down house in a cheap neighborhood. But there are places like this all over town. The next month or so will tell - the "duplex" will hit the market and I will see whether I have proof of concept or not. In our market the tiny apartment would pay 50% of the overall housing cost. If someone chose to live in the tiny side and rent the larger, then they would have FREE housing... 

Hi there - my name is Teri Styers. I am fairly new to Bigger Pockets; but not new at all to real estate investing. I work out of beautiful Western Colorado. Right now I have one SFR rental property, an SFR rental/flip under contract to be sold, and a new fixer property under contract to purchase. This new project is one that I am really excited about because (if everything goes well) it will involve creating a duplex out of a single family home, subdividing a lot within the city of Grand Junction and then new construction of affordable (read as tiny) cottages. By day I am also an HOA Community Manager for an upscale subdivision that is only about 35% built. So I pretty much live & breathe real estate.