For me personally, I want to continue to grow my traditional retirement accounts along with real estate so I wouldn't do it. 

Building the traditional storage space might be a bit more costly than you'd like, but a large barn like building that can be partitioned off might make sense.

Even in a good market, refi's are notorious to be very conservative on appraised values, and you may not have enough upside in many deals to fully take out the HML with traditional financing. 

“A lot of people don’t want others coming through [their homes],” said Sally Suslak, who owns Traditions Realty in Riverside.

Thank you Newspapers are owned by the Rich 1%. 

Credit is around 640, plenty of income to support the refinance but due to seasoning a traditional lender will not lend to us.Is anyone else dealing with this?

Not just from new builds in non traditional areas, but politics. 

Have you asked a rich family member for some downpayment help?

Type of ADU Assumed SF Price/SF Total Cost Sample Monthly Rent in Oakland Valuation Net Equity Shipping Container Conversion to Modern ADU 160 $ 300.00 $ 48,000.00 $ 1,500.00 $ 216,000.00 $ 168,000.00 Garage Conversion to ADU with existing foundation 500 $ 300.00 $ 150,000.00 $ 2,000.00 $ 288,000.00 $ 138,000.00 Garage Conversion to ADU without existing foundation 500 $ 400.00 $ 200,000.00 $ 2,000.00 $ 288,000.00 $ 88,000.00 Basement Conversion to ADU with existing foundation 500 $ 300.00 $ 150,000.00 $ 2,000.00 $ 288,000.00 $ 138,000.00 Basement Conversion to ADU without existing foundation 500 $ 400.00 $ 200,000.00 $ 2,000.00 $ 288,000.00 $ 88,000.00 Detached ADU with traditional prefab modular 500 $ 250.00 $ 125,000.00 $ 2,200.00 $ 316,800.00 $ 191,800.00 Detached ADU with modern prefab modular 500 $ 350.00 $ 175,000.00 $ 2,300.00 $ 331,200.00 $ 156,200.00 Detached ADU with on site build easy access 500 $ 300.00 $ 150,000.00 $ 2,200.00 $ 316,800.00 $ 166,800.00 Detached ADU with on site build difficult access 500 $ 400.00 $ 200,000.00 $ 2,200.00 $ 316,800.00 $ 116,800.00

One topic that I keep re-visiting is the long term impact of telecommuting on the value of real estate in non-traditional areas.