All Forum Posts by: Adrian Chu
Adrian Chu has started 76 posts and replied 1372 times.
Post: Bremerton loosens ADU guidelines
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
For those of us interested in the Kitsap Peninsula, another fun house hacking tidbit. Bremerton is loosening up its ADU regulations with extra flexibility for existing unpermitted ADUs.
https://www.kitsapsun.com/stor...
Hat tip to @Mark Canton for telling me this today!
Post: Seattle allows up to 8 un-related people in a single family home!
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
Another house hacking tidbit.
Despite the unfriendly landlord laws in the City of Seattle, land use and zoning regulations are quite favorable.
If you want to legally rent out rooms, Seattle explicitly allows up to 8 un-related people in a single family home!
Note that ADUs count towards the main house's 8 person limit though.
Best of luck!
Post: THE ULTIMATE SEATTLE HOUSE HACK (no, it is not renting out rooms)
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
Originally posted by @Rand Knutson:
@Adrian Chu wow that’s awesome thanks for sharing! For the year you were renting it out, did you refinance out of the construction loan? If so, was your new loan conventional?
My construction lender offered a portfolio loan option for me, but yes, refinancing it to conventional is definitely an option.
Post: THE ULTIMATE SEATTLE HOUSE HACK (no, it is not renting out rooms)
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
Originally posted by @Bao Chau Tran:
@Adrian Chu
Can you expand on what your experiences with this? Was it hard to obtain a permit? I am curious as I am buying my first investment home in Tampa Fl. I wonder if I can apply to add an unit like this? Thanks!
1. check if your jurisdiction allows detached ADUs
2. check if you can split ownership of the two homes
Post: THE ULTIMATE SEATTLE HOUSE HACK (no, it is not renting out rooms)
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
Originally posted by @Michael Haas:
@Adrian Chu we've been extremely curious about that strategy - essentially "Condo-izing" a single family lot.
Was this a hold for you, or did you sell one or both of the units?
If you're willing to share any advice, pitfalls, or stories from this project I'd love to hear them. With this being such a new strategy there's not a lot of info out there, and even fewer folks who have already executed it successfully.
Congratulations and thanks for sharing! I voted for this post and if I could vote twice I would have.
It was a spec/investment project for me.
Now more and more of these are popping up all over Seattle and buyers are more open to purchasing them. When I finished building the DADU, I wasn't able to sell it so I rented it out for a year. This year, when I listed it for sale, it got multiple offers, and we set a new record high price of $705,000 for ~800 sf.
Post: THE ULTIMATE SEATTLE HOUSE HACK (no, it is not renting out rooms)
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
Originally posted by @Angela Zaitz:
Are the utility lines separate?
Electric is separate. Water/sewer is shared and can be sub-metered.
Post: THE ULTIMATE SEATTLE HOUSE HACK (no, it is not renting out rooms)
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
This is a summary of learnings from a recent project I personally completed.
Steps involved:
1. Buy a home with a large backyard
2. Get permits to build a detached ADU (DADU)/backyard cottage in the backyard
3. Build the DADU for around $200k-300k. I used a construction loan.
4. Split the two homes into detached condos. (The City of Seattle allows this. Most other cities do not.)
5. Sell the DADU for $500k-750k+ (or keep it as a rental and cash out refinance.)
6. You get a great house to live in $150k-300k less than what you would otherwise pay for OR sell the main house as well for maximum profit.
Photos are of a recent project from 2017. I was one of the early adopters for this kind of project. Ask me anything!
Original home (retained)
New DADU
Post: Property Manager for a Rental House in Seattle
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
Happy to help!
Post: Finding tenants for a rent-by-room House Hack
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
It is not difficult even in the pandemic. Just have to price it right.
Post: Seattle Market Analysis - Multifamily
- Real Estate Broker
- Seattle, WA
- Posts 1,488
- Votes 425
Seattle is awesome because of land use flexibility :) And the City of Seattle will appreciate the most because people inevitably want to live here post-covid.