All Forum Posts by: Pavan Sandhu

@Kat Gord - How is your ADU project progressing? Any issues?

Our biggest ADU issue was gaining approval to build from the San Jose Planning Office. It took us over 9 months of back and forth AND we were using a very knowledgeable local architect. Furthermore, we have a great GC. Our project should be done within the next 60 days.

Well, I,m glad you made it through it all! For me I am stepping two feet in. Ideally I would have loved to convert a garage and be done with it, but the way all the structured sit on the property, it just wasn't feasible. I figure that my rent price on the new unit will be higher if the units are detached and more space/privacy is there. I have funding secured and plans are in the approval process with the city. How did you manage being your own GC? Are you in that line of work, or do you work full time somewhere elsewhere? I am planning on handling myself as well. How was you luck with the subs? Any to recommend? It will come greatly appreciated.

 Yes, even though I know it wont be the easiest thing I've ever done I wanted a challenge and it will cashflow nicely as well :)

Hi, I have just finished building an ADU in Corona CA, and can tell you my experience was quite a bit more work than I expected. I hired a planner who made apparently some rough architectural plans, but the city had very high expectations at every step, basically as if I was building a fully independent house. Inspectors were at times unsure just what rules to apply to this home, and they just went for the more stringent ones every time. The cost was about $150/sf for 750sf 2B1B, but I was my own GC and spent a LOT of time working on this which took the better part of a year.

I have just had the property appraised and was disappointed to see that appraisers don't put a lot of value on ADUs as compared to multi-family zoned properties.  You should do your due diligence to find out what the expected final value will be, and how much time and money it will likely cost you.   

The property does cash flow quite nicely now. Since ADUs are underpriced in the market, the better strategy if you're starting from scratch is to buy a home with an existing ADU and skip all the work building it. If you do decide to build, I suggest to stick to a basic setup that uses existing sf such as a converted garage. Good luck!