All Forum Posts by: Raj Sidharthan

 @Chris Seveney
I have priced out larger pieces separately like foundation, framing and roofing. There is a good 40-50% price break if I directly hire contractors.

I am not going to rent it. Building for my Mom to live in, so there is no super time pressure.

The ADU is 425 sqft with one bedroom, one bathroom and a kitchen.
The price I am getting for rough finish and construction alone is $200K - 400K(the lowest to the highest bid I received). I am assuming that I need to add another 30k for finish materials. I already spent 10K on drawing the plan.

Dear friends,
I am planning to build an ADU at my primary residence. I have an approved plan and I have been talking to general contractors. The price I am getting is way more than what I think the project should cost. I think that the markup that the general contractor takes is what makes the cost go up, so I am considering becoming an owner/builder to save some money.

Home improvement is not new to me. I own 5 properties and I have a lot of experience in hiring contractors for repairs and modifications. It's just that I have not done anything as big as this.

Any advice for becoming an owner/builder would be greatly appreciated. I dont know what I dont know :)
What should I get in terms of insurance?
How do you make sure that something that a contractor does meets the city's approval criteria. How would you write contracts in a way that I am covered against workmanship that the city does not approve, in case that happens.

Thanks in advance
Raj

I understand the issues that small businesses are facing now. I am hoping that it will go away and things will get back to normal. Selling is out of the question :)

@Rick Trivedi I did and they sent me to a web page that they would give permits to build here.
I removed everything with 'Conditional' permits form the list. They said it will be a difficult and long process and suggested to stick with the items that are already in the permitted list.

Can't do condos or town homes. The area is zoned as 'IP' (Industrial Park).

Thank you for the ideas.

Friends,
I talked to a few commercial appraisers in my area.
They charge around $2000-$3500 for a highest and best use analysis and the response I got from them was fairly consistent. They said that the highest and best use analysis appraisal tends to be fairly cursory. One person suggested a detailed zoning study, which is typically performed by a zoning or land use expert, including attorneys, land use planners, or architects.They pointed me to this link - https://lawyers.findlaw.com/la...

I am definitely going to talk to a few of them, but my property is a small under $1M property and I feel that using these big law firms is an overkill and they will charge me an arm and a leg, after all I am not preparing for a large project.

Any tips on doing such an analysis myself?

Thanks
Raj

@John Smith Thank you John. Much appreciated.

@Scott MacThank you Scott. Definitely worth considering.

@Rick Trivedi We don't want to sell. The area has great growth potential and will see significant growth in the next 5 years. Which is the problem at hand. We dont think building a warehouse is the best idea as it may become out of place in the next 5 years depending on the other development that may happen.

Thank you... going to call the city to find out what development plans are in that area.

@Dustin Allen Great. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your responses. How much would it cost to do a highest and best use analysis using a consultant?

I am just looking for a range to determine whether I should do this myself or pay someone to do it.