All Forum Posts by: Chris Miller

Thanks for your input Dan.  Y’a this one’s tough cause it’s soo expensive.   Last thing I wanna do is battle the city but can’t swallow paying this much money either lol.  I’ll try to proceed carefully 

Quote from @Chris Seveney:

Quote from @Chris Miller:

Hi All! I'm currently building 2 detached ADU's in the city of Santa Monica,CA on a current 4plex. We are mid build and the city is telling me that we need to run underground electrical from the street. This would require incredibly expensive work as we would have to cut through a public street. And they're telling me that we have to create one main shut off for both panels which would force us to completely redo and upgrade all meters, panel, and go to 400 amp from 200. Basically, It gets crazy expensive. To the tune of $150-$200k. What I thought was going to happen was we would just run overhead wires to a 200 amp panel with its own shutoff which SCE said we indeed CAN do. It's the city that wants all new construction electrical underground. I'm currently trying to meet with the city over this. From what I'm looking into, ADU builds per the state are supposed to be affordable to build as far as utility connections go. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any recommendations or advice,

 what is shown on your approved site plan and electrical plan?

Hey Chris.  On plans, it shows 2-100 amp panels on the front structure.  SCE saying if the 2 new meters go on the same building then it’s gotta be a whole new panel upgrade which would take it to 400amp and cost $80k plus.  Sounds like if I can get a city waiver then we could do a second overhead drop to the property.  However the city wants one main shutoff box to include both overhead drops.  Have you guys heard of that?  I told the electrician And he said he’s never heard of that and wouldn’t know how to handle.  The SCE planner even said it doesn’t make sense.  

Hi All! I'm currently building 2 detached ADU's in the city of Santa Monica,CA on a current 4plex. We are mid build and the city is telling me that we need to run underground electrical from the street. This would require incredibly expensive work as we would have to cut through a public street. And they're telling me that we have to create one main shut off for both panels which would force us to completely redo and upgrade all meters, panel, and go to 400 amp from 200. Basically, It gets crazy expensive. To the tune of $150-$200k. What I thought was going to happen was we would just run overhead wires to a 200 amp panel with its own shutoff which SCE said we indeed CAN do. It's the city that wants all new construction electrical underground. I'm currently trying to meet with the city over this. From what I'm looking into, ADU builds per the state are supposed to be affordable to build as far as utility connections go. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any recommendations or advice,

@Jordan Wheeler

Hey Jordan. If you can’t make it happen and are interested in wholesaling it let me know. I’d potentially be interested in buying it if it made sense. Thanks

@Thomas Rutkowski

Hi can I get more info on the over funded policies?

@Stephanie Medellin

Hi Stephanie. I’d like to hear more on the 2 options for rental property HELOCS. Let me know thanks!

@Brian Howse

Hi do you sell insurance in California?

I think I'll actually get much more than that because I've heard appraisers are now giving full rental income value for ADU's and this property is already a 4plex so it will already attract investors only if I sell it. For a house, you could always do the ADU if you decided to do that, and then get a HELOC to try to recapture some of those funds? Of course, if you use that HELOC, you're now paying interest on that, but that's the cool thing about real estate. There are many options.

@Felix Shi

I think it depends a lot on what you could rent the ADU for? Compare that cash flow to whatever you'd be buying as an investment property. If the ADU is in a high rent area, then maybe. I'm currently adding 3 ADU's in Santa Monica and spending $500k or so but rents from those units should bring in $10k monthly soo kind of a no brainer for me to go ahead and do.

Gotcha 350k cash and I’d do it?