All Forum Posts by: Thomas Mattausch

Thoughtful, classy move. I am a second generation investor that has enough dirt on my hands, layouts in my brain, and tools in my basement to have a lot of respect for contractors. Would love an introduction.

Great to see. So, what were the lessons learned?

Thanks for the input, Mike. This is a Craftsman house so it's all vertical single/double hung. I noticed you happen to be from the town of Pella! Did you move there because of your love of their windows? ;)

There is big news on this front!

The City Council is considering legislation that would be a massive gamechanger for Seattle real estate. It would allow BOTH and ADU and a DADU on any Seattle single family zone with total land square footage of (as currently proposed) 3200sf. Owner occupancy required for only the initial six months.

Here is a great writeup from an architecture firm on the topic:

http://neimanarchitects.blogspot.com/2016/09/upcom...

Plenty of people don't want any change at all and are fighting hard against this, but it sounds like this initiative has momentum, and for good reason. I had recently been thinking that allowing ADU's (or essentially allowing SFR's to be duplexes) is a great compromise that keeps more old houses from turning into box condo clusters, while allowing the increased density that a growing city requires. The housing units that would result would likely be more affordable and more in character with the neighborhood than zero lot line townhomes.

Ditto @ @Graydon Manning's "I would caution against permitting an ADU. It is both expensive and time consuming, but more costly than permitting is the owner occupancy requirement & covenant you have to sign with the City. No thank you." Another option is renting to someone and giving them permission to sublet that portion of the house, which should require no separate ADU designation, just like renting a bedroom. If you can find the right person they could get invested in the place and make a long term tenant. You will now have to tread carefully with the way the City Council has restricted our rights and required us to accept the first qualified tenant. Part of that could be selling the subletting opportunity, and making the rent enough that many folks would have to do that to afford it.

I have paid 40 cents a square foot each for drywall hanging and finishing labor only, side work. 

But if you are creating a retail business, I would imagine drywall is the least of your concerns! What about all your POS, equipment, etc? I'd engage at least a young/hungry architect for this. For flooring, decorative concrete/epoxy systems can be very eye catching.

Hello BP! This is one part success story, one part discussion prompt. 

This morning I threw a hail mary and it went for a touchdown! Didn't even have to push the defender to the ground, as you normally do in a hail mary - trigger warning, Packers fans ;)

I had been challenged by the land use permit planner when my architect applied for substantial renovations to a grandfathered duplex in a single family zone. In Seattle, to prove established (grandfathered, legal) use, you must show a permit for the use, or prove that the use existed prior to 1957, which has been established as a sort of "ancient amnesty" date. 

I put on my researcher hat, paid for a $25 for a 100 article archives subscription to the text searchable Seattle Times database, typed the house and street numbers inside quotes, and got to readin'. 

First, I was thrilled to discover that the proprietor of the "Seattle Grandmothers' Club" resided at our house. 

Fantastic! And useless. But look at that hat!

The next big discovery, however, was a slam dunk!

Dare I say... Boomshakalaka!

It is not completely airtight as they could ask for proof it was used as a separate apartment and not used by the homeowner. However, it's quite strong proof and I'm hopeful it will be accepted. 

Also, one other interesting note that I saw in the agencies' tip sheet on establishing use is this passage: 

"If a use not allowed under the current zoning commenced under permit, or a permit for the use has been granted and has not expired, or substantial progress has been made toward construction of a structure to be occupied by the use, then Seattle DCI recognizes the use as “established” in our records, and therefore legally nonconforming."

That bolded phase is quite curious! Does this scenario presume that potentially erroneous permits were issued prior to construction? Prima facie, it doesn't say that, just that you have to get a bunch of progress done towards building what you want to have there. 

Just wanted to share that lucky find this morning, and ask for any other anecdotes or strategies for proving continuous use in Seattle or elsewhere.

@Account Closed I'm instantly fascinated by your mention of sober living housing. Humanitarian work helping people struggling with mental illness and substance abuse is close to my heart, and if I could make it work as a solid investment as well, I may have to pursue it. 

Anyone else have experience or knowledge of sober house investments? Not sure what goes into it. 

Looks like it was legal in Bellevue until recently

http://www.citylab.com/housing/2015/04/why-a-seattle-suburb-legally-defined-what-a-family-is/389835/

That's one way to house hack, but a concern is that in some cities, multiple leases per house is illegal for single family zoned houses. So your bacon could get cooked. 

I can't find the law cited, but this has been my operating assumption for some time. Can anyone help nail down the legality of this?

Here's some recommendations I found (they recommend one lease per property): http://www.allpropertymanagement.com/blog/2012/10/...

@Steve Vaughan you bring up an important issue - can/should she leverage the trust's cash in a loan? 

And this is where I stand back and let people with more financing knowledge talk...    

:)