Built legal 2bd, 2 bath apartment in basement

Built legal 2bd, 2 bath apartment in basement

Member since 2020 · 64 posts · 17 votes

Investment Info:

Single-family residence buy & hold investment.

We have done a house-hack. We bought a single family house where we created a completely separate apartment, otherwise known as an ADU in Portland (auxiliary dwelling unit) in the basement. We bought this fixer-upper two years ago. We spent the first 6 months working on the first and second floors where we live - just enough to make it livable. Then spent the next year and half creating the apartment. Looking to create more passive income!

How did you find this deal and how did you negotiate it?

We worked with a local realtor who knows Portland well. This was important as we were new to the area. He steered us to a good neighborhood in an up and coming area of town. The sellers needed a certain dollar amount to pay off the bank. We agreed and gave $10K over their bottom line with the stipulation that we get that money at closing to help with improvements.

How did you finance this deal?

VA loan - 0% down

How did you add value to the deal?

Lots of sweat equity! My husband is a handy guy :-)

What was the outcome?

We are finalizing a refinance. It's for 200k over what we paid two years ago. (Combination of adding value through the rental unit and improving the overall property, along with prices increasing in our area).
We will take 100k to pay off personal debt acquired creating the apartment and leaving the other $100k in the house for now.

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  • Real Estate Agent · Portland, OR · Member since 2013 · 412 posts · 219 votes
    6y

    Congrats on the successful rehab and refinance. Have you rented it out or is your plan To use it for short-term rental in the future?

    Would love to hear total cost for converting the basement with the understanding it’ll be lower than market since your husband is a handy guy!  


    Congrats again!


    Mathew

  • Member since 2020 · 64 posts · 17 votes
    6y

    @Mathew Wray, thank you! It was a lot of hard work and I'm so grateful we're done. All in it was just under a $115k. Portland is waving some fees when owners agreed to rent long term for 10 years, which we did. We definitely could have done it for cheaper but as we may move in there some day we wanted it to be nice. I think because of that, we had it rented w/in 2 weeks even during this pandemic. We used a property manager to find the renters. At first she told us basement apartments are renting in the area for $1600. Then she toured it and agreed the price we wanted at $1800/mo was worth it. 

    In Portland, long term includes month to month rentals and we may entertain that option in the future. But we really wanted long terms renters to begin with so we can take a break. 

  • Real Estate Agent · Portland, OR · Member since 2013 · 412 posts · 219 votes
    6y

    Congrats on the big win for you with getting a solid tenant in there and paying rent. It'll feel really good when that rent check comes in every month...a payoff for all the hard work!

    Thanks for sharing the numbers...it is always helpful to have as estimates when people "want to build an ADU" sometimes the reality vs. expectation can be challenging when it comes to money invested to make it happen. And good for you for thinking long-term and making it nice. Cutting corners would've bit you in the long-run and reduced your rents. If you're going to do the work anyway, might as well make it good!

    Mathew

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