Converting home into a duplex?

[Nessa Lyn]

I have a couple strategies that I would love to hear yalls advice and opinions on. I have a single family home that I inherited from my dad and I'm now the successor.

Our house is currently a 2bdrm and on the corner of the block. With two gragaes on each road. Would love to convert into a duplex with separate entrances. Is this pretty difficult to do? We are still paying down the home loan too.

2nd idea would like to add a tiny hone on the property with a separate driveway and use as a str. Would be awesome to even do both ideas. 

Where would you recommend us starting at? How expensive is converting a house to a duplex? 

Thanks!

[Lawrence Potts]

Hey @Nessa Lyn,

Not too sure how far along you are in this journey as you posted 13 days ago, but I know that most counties in Oregon are allowing for ADU conversions. You can convert space at your home in to an ADU and be approved. There are rules that differ among counties and cities (square footage minimum and maximum requirements, parking, etc.) but it would be a good idea to contact your planning and building department for your local city and county to find out what it will take to accomplish this.

You may be better of converting to an ADU than trying to complete as a duplex. You're looking at separating meters for utilities, getting a new/different address, and more hoops to jump through. I would see what cards your dealt with and play with them. Which would be that you have a great opportunity to create units and the city is allowing for ADU's.

Now to answer your question regarding how "difficult" it is to convert...

It depends on the layout of the property, how much capital you have to invest, your contractors, and availability of materials. I know that doesn't answer your question, but there's difficult, and then very difficult. But don't let difficult be the reason why you can't or shouldn't do it. No matter what, real estate will be difficult. The ones that can solve difficult real estate problems are the ones that do well and succeed in real estate. I hope that helps. I am all for people creating ADU's though!