All Forum Posts by: Kevin Dickson

Kelly you are revealing my secret strategy!

I love this idea and have recently built several tandem houses.  The most common form (with garage underneath) can be seen at 2268 S Acoma, which is behind 2266 S Acoma.  Please don't bother the tenants.

Resale value is the main problem with them.  (Almost) Nobody wants a carriage house as their primary residence, but they make fantastic rentals.

I thought if I built one on a corner, the resale value would be as high as one side of a duplex unit.  I was wrong.  I built one on Harvard Avenue behind the original 1947 house.  It cost $380k to build, but I couldn't sell it for more than $495k, so I'm keeping it and renting it for $2600/month.  The half duplexes in the same neighborhood are selling for $600k.

Besides Landmarkk, the leading Tandem House architects in Denver are:

Becky Alexis (mainly NW Denver)

Niccolo Casewit

Brian Pearson (Denver and all Suburbs)

Kung Architecture

I have several rental houses with "underutilized" backyards.  I can set up a trailer for about $1300.  That's hooking up to the sewer cleanout in the backyard, fresh water supply and adding a 30amp 110v outlet to the side of the house.  (It's not legal to live in a trailer in most jurisdictions, but it's OK to store one on the property.  There are usually size limits.)

With City hookups like this you eliminate the problems @Mark Kelley mentions above.  Water, electricity and propane will be less than $50/month.

I can rent the trailer for $500/month in Denver, I experimented with Airbnb, but it was too much hassle, and STRs under 30 days are illegal in most jurisdictions too.

@Joey Meaux

I've built 3 tandem houses and have not dealt with "matching the primary structure".  In all 3 cases, the tandem house has been twice as big as the old primary structure.

To sum up what Bill said,   It's hard to make a basement apartment into a legal unit as recognized by the city.  It's really easy to rent out a basement if there is already a separate entrance and you live upstairs.

I'll chime in since I've built a few of these:

1.  You can't hire someone and get it done for $170k, it will cost  more than that.  @Olivia Romano has done a lot of the work herself.

2.  $250k is about right for something fancy, the maximum allowed square footage is usually 864sf.

3.  Olivia's estimate of the rent ($1400-$1600 is about right for the dwelling unit.  Some of us rent the garage separately for up to $400/month.

4. In neighborhoods zoned TU, you can use the Tandem house form which allows you to build much larger than 864sf, sell it separately, or rent both units (not possible with ADU form)

5.  Most redevelopers are just opting to scrape the old house and build a new duplex instead.

6. I'm taking a longer view, so I build a tandem house in the rear, and keep the old primary dwelling unit in service for many more years. That was one of the stated goals of the 2010 ADU/tandem house zoning, to preserve existing the housing stock.

7. Two expert ADU architects: Niccolo Casewit and Becky Alexis http://www.houzz.com/pro/beckyalexis/hive-architecture-by-becky-alexis

Just a few things I've learned from years of studying and building ADUs in Denver:

1. ADUs were completely outlawed in Denver with the new zoning code implemented in 1956.  Carriage houses built before then are grandfathered.  

2.  ADUs were legalized in just a few neighborhoods in 2010, also with the occupancy requirement.

3.  VERY few existing garages can be converted to code compliant ADUs, usually because the average garage foundation is insufficient even for a single story dwelling unit.

4.  Portland jettisoned the occupancy requirement after just a few years because a study showed that too few ADUs were being built because of it.  It is a deed restriction that effectively usurps your right to sell the homes to an investor.

5.  Bill S. is correct, the City relies totally on neighbor complaints to find violators.  In the City and County of Denver, the fines top out at $52,000 per year if you totally ignore the citations.  On most violations, they will give you 2-6 months to comply if you seek a variance.

It seems like you are afraid that you might have an illegal triplex.  Check the tax records, it will show how many units that the City knows about.

If it shows 3 units, then you are legal with 3 units, no matter what the configuration, due to a grandfathering law passed in 2007.  If you want to build a separate additional unit in back, you might have to sacrifice one of the units in the front building in order to keep the total unit count at 

Going in a talking to the zoning desk is not always productive.   I often get different answers to the same question.

They will require as-built drawings of the existing buildings.

Just FYI:

I think the tandem house form can also be used in RH-3A.

Tandem houses are far better than an ADU because:

1.  They can be split and sold separately.

2.  Neither dwelling unit must be owner occupied.

3.  It can be significantly larger (not that you probably have the room if the lot is only 3,000sf).

Now that Craigslist has map search, the spam is easy to avoid.  CL seems to be making a little bit of a comback.

Where is everyone advertising these days for Denver rental houses and apartments?

Here is the actual ordinance for the City of Denver.  Expect all the suburbs to eventually follow suit.

https://www.denvergov.org/content/dam/denvergov/Portals/723/documents/STR%20Ordinance.pdf

Buying a rental in the near suburbs like those mentioned and Englewood or Glendale could be a good short term strategy until the nimbys outlaw STRs in the suburbs. 

The demand is obviously there.  Proximity to light rail is a huge plus.