BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast - 581: The Hidden Passive Income Source in Your Own Backyard w/That ADU Guy

Episode Date: March 10, 2022

What do you think of when we say ADU (accessory dwelling unit)? If you’re like most homeowners, you probably think of a back house, a mother-in-law suite, or a converted art studio. But what if you ...don’t have a home that comes with a pre-fitted accessory dwelling unit? What if you don’t want to put in the money (or time) to build one out. Are you left with any options, or are your ADU dreams dead in the dust? If you’ve wanted to start building passive income streams through your primary residence, then we’ve got good news for you. With us today is Derek Sherrell, also known as “That ADU Guy”, precisely because he is THE person you want to talk to when it comes to accessory dwelling units on your property. Derek knows his stuff, consulting dozens of homeowners on how an ADU would fit into their property and how much passive income they could make as a result. And it’s not just about building some other structure in your backyard. You can convert attics, basements, garages, and even portions of your house into accessory dwelling units. Not only does this allow you to save on the cost of new construction, but it also gives you another option to build wealth, pay down your mortgage, or simply profit from a rarely used portion of your home. In This Episode We Cover: The exact criteria homeowners should look for in potential ADU-friendly properties  Attached vs. detached ADUs and the benefits (and cash flow difference) of both The four main challenges when building, financing, or strategizing an ADU What to look for in existing ADU structures, whether it’s a garage, back house, or basement How to become an ADU expert quickly (and for free) with simple city zoning information And So Much More! Links from the Show: BiggerPockets Agent Finder BiggerPockets Forums Dave Ramsey website Warren Buffet Forbes profile Joe Asamoah's BiggerPockets profile GC Real Estate Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-581 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is the Bigger Pockets podcast show 581. You can sit there with the bat on your shoulder and watch all these houses come down the pipe. And when you see one that has ADU potential after you've done this a few times, it's so obvious. It looks like a beach ball coming down, right? Belt High Fastball. That's the best way I can describe it is you have this really easy criteria and then you just sit there and wait for one to come along. What's going on, everyone is David Green, your host of the Bessalon. Bigger Pockets podcast, the show where we teach you how to find financial freedom through real
Starting point is 00:00:41 estate. We do that by bringing on different guests as well as sharing information ourselves to sort of highlight for you what it looks like to find that financial freedom that you seek. Today's guest is a specialist in accessory dwelling units or ADUs. If you've ever wondered, what is an ADU? Why do people talk about them? Why are there so many acronyms in real estate that I don't understand? Well, you're going to learn a lot about that today. This is a very, very, very relevant and important sort of like a hot topic that's going around in the world real estate. And we brought in an expert from Oregon who knows construction, who also knows ADUs, who does it himself and then helps other people do it to share a lot of information with you.
Starting point is 00:01:20 Henry, what were some of your favorite parts of the show we just did with Derek? Man, this is arguably one of my favorite episodes so far of the BP podcast. And not just because I got to be here and co-host it, but the information that was provided was phenomenal because you're right. It's a topic a lot of people want to know about that not a lot of people are talking about. Some of the favorite parts of the show for me were him giving great tips and ideas of how to look at properties that you probably see every day. You may have walked five properties last week with your real estate agent and maybe one of those would have been an excellent candidate for an ADU and you didn't know that. He's going to start to reveal to you
Starting point is 00:02:00 what you should be looking for. And I promise you, you're going to have some aha. moments about, oh, you know what? That house is a great one for this because I had like two of those aha moments myself, just thinking through my market as he was talking. That's how you know it's a great show, right? As you're listening when you're like, ooh, ooh, I could go do this thing. That's exactly what we're looking for. Yeah, just what I needed another strategy to go look at for real. But yeah, man, it's phenomenal. He also gives a great, great tip for how to speak to people, especially when you're going to do these ADUs, you have to talk to the city, city council members, planning commissions, right? He gives a great tip on how to approach them to not only get their
Starting point is 00:02:41 expertise on your plans, but to essentially help them green light what you're trying to do. Yeah, we cover that in the fire round. So make sure you listen all the way to the end where we get into the fire round where Derek gives some really practical advice that's sort of unheard of. We don't hear many people that are actually helping you walk through the permitting process with the city. And then he gives it really good. point about how if you go the traditional method, you might have a 20 page report of code that you have to abide by, but if you go the ADU way, it might be actually 20% of that, much, much smaller. So the ADUs provide a workaround for a lot of the common problems that investors face.
Starting point is 00:03:19 So if you're somebody who has often wanted to invest in a market that you feel is too expensive or wouldn't cash flow or you just don't want to pay the mortgage to buy a house there, this is an episode for you. if you're a creative person who says, hey, no, I'm willing to do some work to make this deal work. I want to make real estate work. This is a deal for you. And if you're somebody who's just curious,
Starting point is 00:03:40 like, why does everyone talk about ADUs and what does that even mean? And you don't want to feel like you're left out of the next meetup or the next party you're at. This is an episode for you. Today's quick tip is brought to you by me, David Green. In today's market, we mentioned in the show, you don't find a great deal. You could find a great deal. But it's probably going to be a great deal that just finds you.
Starting point is 00:03:59 If you go looking for it, it's very, difficult to find, but you can make a great deal. So I want to highly encourage you to look at property from a creative perspective and ask yourself, how could I make this work? And if you do that for long enough, you'll start to find patterns in properties and floor plans that you will recognize when you see them. Once that happens, you're going to need a person who's going to help you with writing an offer, doing some research. Don't try to do it all yourself. Bigger Pockets has an agent finder system that will connect you with a real estate agent that you can reach out to when you have questions just like from today's show. What I love about it is that your agent is probably
Starting point is 00:04:32 listening to the same podcast that you are right now and they're learning all the same things as you. So I like to try to keep it within the bigger pockets community whenever I can. Did you know your house gets bored when you leave? I can't actually prove that, but it probably misses out on the action, the footsteps, the late night fridge raids. Yeah, when you're gone, your place is basically on unpaid leave. It's sitting there in the dark thinking I could be contributing right now. Your side room wants a side hustle. Even your Wi-Fi is like, we could be networking. You're on vacation, spending money like it's a sport while your staircase at home is fully capable of sending your income upwards. Here's the twist. You can go on a trip
Starting point is 00:05:14 and actually earn money. Airbnb makes that possible with the co-host network. If you're away for a while or have a secondary property, you can hire a vetted local co-host with real hosting experience to handle it all. A co-host can handle guest communications. It can manage reservations and keep things running smoothly so you don't have to check your phone between beach days. That means less stress and more time enjoying your trip. You can relax, knowing guests are taking care of and your place is in good hands. You travel, your house works. Everyone wins. If you're ready to host but could use some help, find a co-host at Airbnb.com slash host. Running your real estate business doesn't have to feel like juggling five different tools, and the tools are blades or flaming torches.
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Starting point is 00:06:22 That's R-E-S-I-P-L-I-com slash bigger pockets. A lot of property managers think their job is answering tenant emails and coordinating repairs. That's not the job. The job of a property manager is protecting and growing your operating income and earning your trust while they do it. And that comes down to three numbers, occupancy, delinquency, and net promoter score. If those numbers slip, your income slips, and your trust slips, too. And most PMs don't hold themselves to performance standards. They focus on activity, not outcomes.
Starting point is 00:06:58 Mind is different. They obsess over the metrics that actually grow your cash flow. Go to mind.co slash show me to see how mine performs and get a month of management for free. Because if you're going to hire a property manager, hire one that manages your investment like an investment. Denry, anything you want to say before we bring in Derek? Yeah, man, I just want to encourage people to listen With an open mind, I know for me, I've thought about ADUs, but the second you start digging through city codes and ordinances and having to call the city, it kind of gets overwhelming, especially if you're a new investor. I'm a seasoned investor. But what our guest Derek kind of points out is that this is a whole lot easier than people think on the front side. And so listen with an open mind about this ADU strategy. And it's a pretty flexible strategy. You can have them attack.
Starting point is 00:07:51 You can have them detached. Some are cheaper to build, some are more expensive to build. And it's just you can take something existing and convert it as it sits, right? There's a ton of ways to take this ADU strategy and make it profitable. And I think you just have to have an open mind, take some notes. And her guest is just, he's just so kind and thoughtful and ready to help. So this episode comes with a teammate for you to reach out to and get help. I love this episode.
Starting point is 00:08:17 Great point, my man. Appreciate you pointing that out. All right. Let's bring in Derek. Derek Sherell. Welcome to the Bigger Pockets podcast. Thank you, David. Glad to be here.
Starting point is 00:08:26 Thank you. How are you today? You know, better than I deserve. That's a Dave Ramsey line, isn't it? Hey, thanks. You get bonus points for calling that out. You know, honestly, if I was any more excited to be on Bigger Pockets today, sharing this ADU strategy with all the listeners, I'd probably fall out of my chair.
Starting point is 00:08:42 And I'm not kidding. I'm really glad to hear that. I hope you don't, but I understand. I believe you're a firefighter, right? Yeah, I put my seat built on. Okay. So if you fall out of your chair. chair, you're the best person qualified to sort of get yourself back out of it again.
Starting point is 00:08:53 We don't have to worry about you being stuck. Copy that. And not able to get up. So tell us, what does your business look like? What's your portfolio look like and a little bit about yourself? Yeah, thanks. So my portfolio consists of six primary houses, 14 units total. And what I do is I'm a buy and hold, build and hold investor.
Starting point is 00:09:13 And I'm looking for a property that I can either convert, attach, or build a detached, accessory dwelling unit, turning a single-family property into a small multi-family. And my goal is to create the best product on the market, a product that's really high-demand, low supply, and get the best tenant and place them in there and then teach the tenant how to do this process. And I also like to teach first-time homebuyers how to use this strategy to break the barrier of homeownership. So how did you first come across this idea of incorporating ADUs into existing properties? You know, by complete chance, David, I started an apprenticeship in high school. So I got into this construction technology class when I was 16 and Oregon was on the cutting edge of accessory
Starting point is 00:09:59 dwelling units in the country. And we had a two-term class where we were building a guest house for one of our teachers. That's where I saw the process. I later became a carpenter. I was a licensed, finished carpenter for years and I was building accessory dwellings and guest houses in Southern Oregon, Ashland, Oregon. And this was a product that was right before my very eyes the whole time. It wasn't until years later that I realized it was actually an investment vehicle that I could attain myself. Now, you have a construction background. Is that right? Yeah, yeah. I was a builder. And like I said, I started an apprenticeship in high school. And right after high school, I got my contractor's license. And this is back in the run up of the Great Recession. So everybody was a
Starting point is 00:10:43 builder. Everybody had a truck in a lumber rack. We were all making really good money. So we thought at the time. Everybody was buying boats. And little did we know, there was this huge crash that was coming a few years later. So that was kind of, I got started in the height and I got out as everything was falling. The whole card house just started collapsing. So it sounds like you sort of built your skill set when it was really popular to be in construction. It fell apart. You got in something more stable. So now you're working as a firefighter, but you still have those skills. And now you're seeing, hey, there's a lot of demand for this stuff. People are looking to fix their houses up again, right?
Starting point is 00:11:18 Yeah, exactly. So as we know in healthy economic cycles, we have this kind of ebb and flow and this up and down. And where the idea really came to fruition for me was what I was looking to buy my second house. I bought a home and I got into real estate on accident. I bought a house in 2004. And I was that guy.
Starting point is 00:11:38 I was the subprime poster boy. So I went in to get this loan. They said, how much do you make? And I said, well, I don't really know. And they told me, this is what you're making. We're doing a stated income. And they said, these are your assets. I didn't have those assets.
Starting point is 00:11:51 And I was able to get this subprime mortgage on this house. So a long story short, when I moved into town to pursue a career in the fire service, I needed to find something a little bit closer to the municipality. And the only way I was going to be able to buy a house, we're a high market, our average value in our two towns, average sales prices from six to seven. 400,000 to 700,000 in the two towns. So it's a high barrier of entry. And the only way that was going to be achievable for an average guy like me was to have income property attached to a single family residence that I could buy for 5%. So you sort of had to house hack just in order to make it
Starting point is 00:12:31 work with the job you wanted to have. Absolutely had to. And this was before house hack or it was curlop or before burr. This was just common sense. It was like, how do I do the math so I can have a home? I grew up in apartments and my path to real estate was how do I have a roommate at my first place? And then the second place, how do I build an accessory dwelling unit so I can start to be an adult and not have a roommate but still have income coming in from that primary property? Well, they say necessity is the mother of invention. And I think in this case, that worked out. Now, this first ADU, did you build it from the ground up?
Starting point is 00:13:05 Did you buy something already had one? How did you make that work? Yeah, great question, David. And this is what I teach people for free. This is what I'm so enthusiastic about for first-time buyers is you have to look for a house that has potential to do a conversion. Some people call it a carve-out. So this first house, it had an attached space that at one point was a music studio. So it was completely finished.
Starting point is 00:13:29 It had a bathroom in it. It was basically turnkey ADU. And so the thing that I try to tell people is go with what you have. if your price point is only going to allow you to do a conversion ADU because that may cost 20 when a stand-alone may cost 120, set your goals and go from there. But that project was an attached ADU that was already 90% done, David. Man, that's super cool, man. This is an interesting strategy.
Starting point is 00:13:57 It's one that I've thought about several times. And it's one that I think a lot of people, especially people in higher price markets such as yourself, are looking into. So it's great to talk to somebody who's putting it into actual practice. So talk about kind of in a little more detail on your first deal. So did you go looking specifically for a property that was set up for an ADU? And how did you go about deciding what kind of an ADU and kind of what that process looked like on your first deal? Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. Henry, thanks. And this is this is not just my first deal. This for our audience, these few criteria, this is for your next deal or your first deal. So for what that's worth. look for the zoning code. So in order to deploy this strategy, you have to become an expert in ADU zoning. And it sounds really extravagant, but it's not. Most accessory dwelling unit codes are like
Starting point is 00:14:50 five pages or less. So when I say you need to be an expert in ADU code, you need to spend about an hour reading something and digesting, maybe a couple phone calls to ask some questions. But to circle back to the question, I had a crystal clear criteria, even before I knew what a crystal clear criteria was. I knew this is a town, an accessory dwelling unit attached, interior or detached is an allowable use in that zone. And I could meet the standards. So after that, it was like, is this a place that I could live forever with my family? That's kind of my meter. How's the crime?
Starting point is 00:15:23 How's the transit? How's the jobs? Because I live here forever. And then can I fund it and make it work? So it's that simple. Is it an allowable use? Would you want to live there forever? And can you pull it off?
Starting point is 00:15:34 Does it make sense financially? So when you say would you want to live there forever, are you using that as just a criteria as that's just something Derek wants to own? Or is that a criteria because some of these uses require you to live there? Yes and yes. So my thought is I'm going to live there for the first year before I go do it again. And my second thought is my criteria, my needle and my stomach. Could I live here forever if I have to? If there's a downturn like there was in 07 and all my friends lost their boats and their houses, what I feel comfortable is. moving up here into this place. Could I live here with my family? And so that's, that's kind of my gauge of my criteria. And then the second piece of that is a great question. I'm glad you brought it up because part of becoming an expert in your ADU zoning is some areas do require a residency requirement in the primary or the accessory. So in other words, I was doing a little research recently in Arkansas and there's a small town where you can have two ADUs, one attached, one
Starting point is 00:16:35 detached. There's no limitations. There's no residency requirement. And then there's a town just a couple, one county over, and they allow one accessory dwelling unit, and you cannot rent it unless it's your primary residence. So if you're an investor and you're going to stack all these up, you may not be able to deploy this strategy. But what's so powerful and what we know and what I know from almost 600 episodes is that it's not the first deal that we go big on. It's not the first deal that builds wealth. It's the first deal that lights the fire in our belly and says, like, I'm a normal guy or girl, and I can do this. So that's really what I kind of coach people into the code and say, hey, if this is an area you've identified, can you build an ADU? Do you have to live in it
Starting point is 00:17:20 if you do? So that's kind of a long winded answer, Henry, but there's just so much information. It's hard to kind of keep those short and brief. So in this next section, Derek, we're going to sort of get into what challenges you faced, how you overcame those and like what you learned through the process of having to overcome some hurdles. One thing I'm really proud of, and I don't know it's worth even mentioning, but the coaching I'm doing right now for all these homeowners, it's not free like getting no, no down payment. It's free. Like I'm giving my time. Bigger pockets has given me the tools to go become wealthy and on a scale that I consider. And now I have the time to go give this away. So that's, that kind of is the intro into the fire.
Starting point is 00:18:01 stuff and my town did burn down. It can be hard to talk about at times, but that's kind of the back wrap. Well, I think the ADU strategy is super popular right now, mostly because there's a shortage in housing. People need places to live. Housing is expensive, so people are willing to get a smaller property to have less of a payment. And then if you're the investor who wants to own the asset, you're trying to figure out how do I make an expensive asset cash flow? I need another unit that I can rent out another source of revenue. So ADUs kind of work from almost every single perspective here in how to make real estate work when it's hot. Now, I'm sure that that could be a problem if there's not a lot of people that need to rent in an area, if the population is shrinking. But right now,
Starting point is 00:18:45 that's not our issue. So as you sort of said, hey, this is my niche, I'm going to continue to replicate it and keep moving. What are some of the challenges that you faced in doing something that not a lot of other people are doing. There's a lot of challenges that come with kind of being first to market, not that I'm the first person to build ADUs because I'm not. But a lot of people in the town that you're in may not know that it's an allowable use because, you know, single family zoning for years and years and years has kind of been the gold standard for planning in this country. And as we get more open to infill, especially in these appreciating markets where there's a higher demand for housing than there is available units, some of the challenges are just,
Starting point is 00:19:25 literally educating the cities at times of their own code because, you know, city planners have so many things on their mind. They're looking at floodplains, long-term master plans, housing needs analysis. They can't dive in as detailed as we can. So one of the challenges is just kind of educating people that is allowable use, the neighbors. So if you're doing infill build, a lot of people, they really value their privacy. And there's an area in your backyard that they've looked over for years that they actually kind of feel like is their backyard because of their view. And all of a sudden, you go out there with an excavator and you're digging a 20 by 40 pad in the ground, people can kind of get their hackles up, rightfully. So another challenge that I've seen come up
Starting point is 00:20:10 is costing. So people think because it's small, it's going to be really affordable. And it's quite the opposite of that. When we're building, we don't really have an economy of scale on a small unit because we have all the infrastructure, all the system development fees, all the appliances, all the amenities of a large custom house, but we don't have any volume to kind of cost average that in. So those are just a few of the challenges. Maybe one more I would add, and this one could be debated in its own show, but would be what is the best way to finance them, or why are they so hard to finance? And the reason for kind of all four of these challenges is just because they're new. As a planning community, as a building community, as people in general,
Starting point is 00:20:52 we're really just slow to change. We're archaic. We don't like to move this big ship and do something new. There's probably 100 benefits, but those are four challenges that I've brought up against doing exclusively accessory dwelling unit as a strategy. Yeah, that's the same thing that I've found with our clients that want to do it. Here's a common question that I'll get. Hey, David, I want to buy this property or maybe they already own a property.
Starting point is 00:21:17 They say, I want to build an ADU. And it's going to cost $125,000 to build it. but it will then create this much cash flow. And so we'll bump my ROI up to this point on my current house, or at least my cash flow. And I'll look at that and I'll say, well, here's the issue that isn't going to add $125,000 of value to your home guaranteed. You might be more. It will likely be less because at this stage, their new appraisers are not looking at
Starting point is 00:21:44 those in every circumstance like they're as valuable as I think the market is saying that they are. So it's going to be tough to get your money back if you do that. And because you can't finance it, it's the equivalent of $125,000 down payment that you could make on a complete different property. Right. And then you're getting to buy a $500,000 house with this $125,000 down instead of just adding $125,000 ADU to your property. What is your answer to the people who find themselves in that situation? The answer is kind of multifaceted, but I would first, I would say it really depends on your goals. Because if your goals are to scale, it's not to put that 125 down.
Starting point is 00:22:21 It's to go buy two properties with 25% down potentially. But I would say if you're thinking of building an accessory dwelling unit and you own a home and you're talking to David, you're in an appreciation market, and there's a high likelihood that you have good equity in the house that you're already using, and maybe not all of it. Maybe you don't get the whole build costs, but what we'll do is we'll set up a financial stack where we're going to take funds from wherever we can, home equity being a good one. There's another great product for somebody in this scenario for that question, David, that has a house. Maybe they refied, they were smart. They refied last year and they're under 3%. So they don't want to do a cash out refi because they don't want to set that back up at 4% today.
Starting point is 00:23:05 But maybe they'll look at a second loan or maybe they'll look at a potentially a custom construction loan. Or there's a product called a home style renovation loan that's a Fannie Mae product where you can get a loan on, depending on your loanability, 75 to 95% of finished value. So in that case, your client comes to you and says, David, I own this house in XYZ, California, and I want $125,000 ADU, but I don't have any equity, but I am lendable. I have good credit. I would say those are three really good options to look at. But it all depends on your goals.
Starting point is 00:23:43 Yeah, that's a great point. If your goal is build as big of a portfolio as you possibly can, as fast as you can, it might make more sense to take that same equity and use it to buy more property, assuming you can't, right? Some markets are so hot that you just can't get a house at all. Totally. And the last thing I would add, and it's very important, and I don't mean to interrupt. But it is kind of an issue, like, how do I fund this?
Starting point is 00:24:03 And what I do is it's a mindset? It's, do I think about it is this is going to be hard to fund or do I think about it as, oh, my goodness, I live in one of the most highly appreciating areas in the country and I have a free lot. How do I build a small house on my free lot? And if we change our mindset and we look at it that way, it becomes it's not a problem. It's a solution. So again, it's just about goals.
Starting point is 00:24:26 So it's not the greatest and best use in all areas. And some of these neighborhood protectors, which is the new term for NIMBY's because NIMBY is not really appropriate. But neighborhood protectors, they have good points. And some of them, they don't think it's the greatest and best use in their neighborhood. And some of them are right. So that's worth noting too, David, thanks. Well, you know, one of the areas that I've found. that does make it a no-brainer?
Starting point is 00:24:49 Because I'm in this situation all the time where clients come to me and they say, David, what do I do with my money? How do I get at the biggest point? So I have to work through the same things that you are. If it's building it from the ground up, it usually makes sense. If you love the house, you're going to live in it.
Starting point is 00:25:02 You want a place that you can include in that area. And adding square footage to your property is going to make the value go up. So like in the Bay Area where I am, this makes a lot of sense. In many cases, this can make sense. It wouldn't make sense in the example that we said where you're just trying to get the most value that you possibly can out of the money.
Starting point is 00:25:19 Another scenario where it is a no-brainer is when there is an existing structure on the property that can be converted into an ADU without having to build it from the ground up. So do you mind sharing Derek a little bit about when you do that, what to look for? What are the things that you want to see in a structure that will reduce cost? Like sometimes I'll see a shed and my client will say, hey, can we convert that into an ADU? You might as well, that's going to be more expensive because you have to get rid of the shed, right? So what are the things that they want to be looking for in the structure? Yeah, David, just so you know, that that's all solid gold.
Starting point is 00:25:51 That's solid gold. That's awesome. So what I tell people to look for in a structure is what's easy? You know, you've been talking for years, David, about house hacking. And if you see something on the MLS, it's a 3-2 and has 1,800 square feet or 2100 square feet, you always know you're getting another bedroom. It's the same exact lens. You just shifted a little bit. And it's like, okay, we have this big, gaudy formal dining.
Starting point is 00:26:15 room. And there's already a bathroom over here. We have 400 square feet. It's vaulted. I mean, I'm talking about pulling the permits, paying system development fees and spending $500 to put up a firewall, two layers of 5-8s type X to get life safety protection, carbon monoxide detector and a smoke detector in a kitchen. So there's opportunities that are very, very easy and very, very affordable, like you said, an absolute no-brainer to convert them. And I'll share a quick story. with you. I get calls all day long about ADUs. And I did a walkthrough with a lady in Ashland, Oregon yesterday, who's a first-time buyer. So I said, hey, I'll come give you my two-hour free consultation. And this property, she's under contract with it. At $565,000, it has an 11,
Starting point is 00:27:03 which is a really weird number, an 11 by 26 detached, permitted legal shop. So it has 100 amps of power. It's finished. It's got drywall. It's roof. I mean, it really just needs a bathroom and plumbing, and she can turn this thing into an accessory dwelling unit. And I get there and we do the figures and we're looking at SDCs and we're looking at kitchen and we're looking at a sewer tap. And I said, we were an hour into this. And I said, well, what are your goals? And she said, well, I was just, I kind of wanted to just get a roommate. I'm only one person. This is a house that's almost 1900 square feet. It's a huge cabin style two, two. And I said, let's go in the house. And we walked in the mud room, which is now after I left is the kitchen. So we walked into the mudroom
Starting point is 00:27:47 and there's this big nice area. There's a big, beautiful bathroom and a huge bedroom. And there's one 36-inch transit walkthrough into the kitchen in the main house and the other living quarters. And it was just like, bam, right there. I mean, we were looking at spending $50,000 for her to potentially convert this little tiny narrow structure that would not have really, really efficiently fit a bed and a bathroom. And we go inside and there's another opportunity that's a couple thousand dollars that accomplishes the same thing because she wants to live alone. She was already going to have a roommate. And so it's really about going into a property with the lens of how do I meet my goals.
Starting point is 00:28:30 And that's awesome. So what I hear you saying is really as you're looking at these properties, if you're somebody that's thinking about doing an ADU, it doesn't always have to be an external ADU and you can look at a property. And what David preaches and kind of what you said is exactly right. If you look for these houses that are three twos with over 2,000 square feet or two twos with, you know, 1,500, 2,000 square feet, there's obviously extra space in that house. Right. And so if I'm hearing you correctly, you just have to be kind of mind present or thoughtful of that space and try to envision, hey, is there a bathroom? close by this additional space. And is there a way we could put a wall up at a kitchen and then
Starting point is 00:29:14 maybe some way for them to access that space? And then now you've taken something that was already under roof and made it two units. Is that what I'm hearing? Oh, that's right on the money, Henry, all day long, home run right there. And the thing about that too is we have to plug this is you're buying this single family turned duplex potentially for five percent down while you live in it for a year and then you go do it again. You know, unlike a lender, that's going to say, hey, if this is an investment loan, you have nine, maybe 10 before you get out of non-conforming loans. Owner-occupied loans, you could do this 100 times, not that you would want to. But more to your point, Henry, Warren Buffett talks about this book that Ted Williams wrote,
Starting point is 00:29:54 The Science of Hitting. And Ted Williams took the strike zone and he cut it into 77 different cells, each the size of a baseball. And he realized what he would bat if a pitch was in his strike zone or out of his sweet spot. And this is the same thing with 80 years. and MLS or off market single families that have ADU potential. I just, you can sit there with a bat on your shoulder and watch all these houses come down the pipe. And when you see one that has ADU potential after you've done this a few times, it's so
Starting point is 00:30:24 obvious. It looks like a beach ball coming down, right? Belt high fastball. Sorry I don't have a better jihitsu analogy for David. But that's the best way I can describe it is you have this really easy criteria. And then you just sit there and wait for one to come on. long. Well, the reason I suck at jujitsu is I don't have that perspective, right? I don't know what I'm looking at when this person is coming at me. It's, I'm the newbie in this world. And I'm like,
Starting point is 00:30:50 what do I do when this happens? And you watch the people that are good and they don't even think. They're just like, why would you leave your hand down right there? They've jumped right through. So it is encouraging what you're saying. Henry, did you have something you wanted to add? Yeah, no, I was just going to say, it's like the red truck theory, right? Like, once you know what you're looking for, once you've seen it a couple of times, now everywhere you go, you can spot it. pretty quickly. Definitely. Definitely. Yeah, that's awesome. The last thing I want to run by you, Derek, is the expert here is one of the areas that we found a lot of success for our clients, because basically we're like a scavenger hunter in probably the hottest market in the country, the Bay Area right now.
Starting point is 00:31:24 We have to try to find a way to get a person in there without breaking the bank. And so I've become incredibly creative at finding floor plans and opportunities like what you're saying. Garage conversions have been really, really big. Can you share any insight that you have as to what to look for and how to execute a garage conversion? The number one thing, and we're not thinking about it, probably not even on our radar, is it can we meet the parking standard in the outline zone if we turn our garage, our parking spaces that we use to meet the standard into living space? So that's where it goes back to my step one of my crystal clear criteria.
Starting point is 00:32:01 You have to become an ADU zoning expert. So the garage conversion is the most attainable. It's the most affordable, but it's also really hard if you have a parking standard. I can't speak intelligently for California, but I know in Oregon, January 1st of 2018, we passed a house bill that required that all cities and municipalities in our state remove a parking requirement for the first accessory dwelling unit. But to further dig into your question is that the ADU conversion into a garage is amazing. And if you have clients in a really, really high-priced market, I'm sure you know this strategy, David. You're super sharp, your lender. You have all the angles.
Starting point is 00:32:44 But one to think about if you haven't is if you can bring a design to the closing table and you can bring a licensed contractor that meets the needs of the lender, you can bring that custom construction loan to the table with the primary loan and you wrap it all into one deal for 3% for a first-time buyer. So if you have a property in your market, it's a million dollars and they want to convert the garage for 100,000, and it will meet the siding and design standards in their zone because you're now an ADU expert or you called me, and I told you. And you can meet the parking. You can show up to the closing table with the finished value of that accessory dwelling unit built in to the price and finance 1.1 and 3%. That would be a strategy I would say to look into.
Starting point is 00:33:36 I mean, we know that lenders are not created equal. You might have three people tell you no before one person tells you yes. But I can tell you this, accessory dwelling units, they're not just a new fad. They're here to stay. They're sweeping across the country. And whoever comes up with a really, really good product to lend on these and to lend, you know, high loan to value on these is going to be really rich. They're not going to be working after they figure it out. Did you know your house gets bored when you leave?
Starting point is 00:34:03 I can't actually prove that, but it probably misses out on the action, the footsteps, the late-night fridge raids. Yeah, when you're gone, your place is basically on unpaid leave. It's sitting there in the dark thinking, I could be contributing right now. Your side room wants a side hustle. Even your Wi-Fi is like, we could be networking. You're on vacation, spending money like it's a sport while your staircase at home is fully capable of sending your income upwards.
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Starting point is 00:36:18 All right, rental property investors, listen up. Our friends at Dominion Financial already have some of the best DSCR rates in the industry. Now they're the fastest, too. They just launched 10. day DSCR closing. That's right, 10 days. And they're still the only lender with the DSCR price beat guarantee. That means faster closing. The best terms. Zero guesswork. That's Dominion financial. Check them out at biggerpockets.com slash dominion. Again, that's biggerpockets.com slash dominion. Okay. Now, Derek, let's say I'm a home buyer. I'm an investor. I'm out with my agent. We're walking a property. I love the location. I love the house. I want to buy it. It just feels like it's going to be a little too high of the mortgage rate, it's not going to cash flow. But I got a little capital that I can use to do a garage conversion.
Starting point is 00:37:06 Tell me as I'm walking into that garage, what should I be looking for? Should it be attached to the home? Should it be detached, plumbing, electrical? What are the things that I can see that lets me know, ooh, that's the red truck that I've been looking for? Yeah, David. So the cheaper option is a lot of times the better option. So if it's attached, it's going to be more affordable.
Starting point is 00:37:26 So we'll start with an attached unit. If it's attached, we're looking for first and foremost, I'm looking for sewer. So we've been using gravity for a long time, thousands of years because it works. And if we have a property grade and the sewer line is on the other side of the house, it may be a tough lift. We can pump. We can pump sewer, but I'm looking for sewer first. The next thing that I'm looking for is if I...
Starting point is 00:37:50 Well, hang on one second there. You're looking for the sewer line to be on the same side of the house that the garage is on? That's what you're saying. Yeah. or a spot that I know it will fall to. And it's really easy. You can pop your head in the crawl space and you can see the main and you can usually see which corner of the house it goes out.
Starting point is 00:38:04 So that's a quick way to identify that without an inspection or a scope. The next thing I'm looking for is the attached garage. Is it big enough to be a unit? Does it have seven foot ceilings or nine foot ceilings? What's the shared wall? Is the shared wall that would be the bedroom of the ADU? Is that the master? Because we can sound proof that.
Starting point is 00:38:22 And we can vibration proof that. But that's not ideal. we'd rather have that be a kitchen wall. A couple other things is, what is the natural light? If I'm going to do a conversion in your market and a garage, it's still going to cost me 50 grand, and I want it to be marketable. Again, if you go back to my criteria, it would be the same that you would want for your client.
Starting point is 00:38:40 Is it the best ADU in your neighborhood? So those are a few things. Detached is way better. Ideally, you want a detached unit because A, the house has privacy and B, the tenant has privacy, and people will pay it premium for detached. So if you're walking through a property with your client and has a detached garage or shop, I usually say 400 square feet is about the minimum, and there's already water sewer power out to it, that's a no-brainer.
Starting point is 00:39:04 That's that beach ball coming right down the belt high fastball. But I'm just looking for mostly, where's the sewer? And if I was a tenant and I was going to live in here, how does it feel? Is it a dark little 300 square foot garage with seven-foot ceilings that are trusses? Because if it is, I'm going to have to take the roof off. I'm going to have to go up. If the sewer lines on the other side of the property, it might not be worth the effort.
Starting point is 00:39:27 I might be better off starting new. But to tie that all in together for the garage is, will it work? When you walk in there, you know, you don't need to do very many of these. And you walk in and you say, gosh, this just feels great. One thing that I do always add on the garage conversion is
Starting point is 00:39:43 when they do a garage for unconditioned space, they don't put a vapor barrier under the slab on grade. And what you get is you get this effervescence and you get this moisture, similar to a basement where they didn't properly do a moisture barrier. So if I'm starting with a place that feels kind of dank, that's just kind of a red flag. So it's really like, how does it feel when you walk in? Can you get sewer fall? And how much privacy is your tenant going to have? And are you going to be able to get, you know, as Joe Ossemoa calls it, the Crem de la Crem.
Starting point is 00:40:17 Like, how do you get the best tenant? It's by having the best product and giving the best customer service. Awesome. Henry, anything you want to add on that? So also, what tends to be in place in some of these garages in my market specifically is the electrical panel for the entire house is a lot of the time is found in the garage. And so when you see that, is that a big red flag or are you moving those with ease or how does that work? Yeah, what you do is you just flip them over.
Starting point is 00:40:45 So they're already on an exterior wall. And all you have to do is pull the meter and you flip them. them over. So that's not a major concern at all. That's, that's like something easy. If there's everything else and there's a electrical panel in there, like, that's butter. If you see a gas meter, you know, that's a lot different. Those should be exterior. But a lot of times people build garages where their carport was where their gas meter used to be and those diaphragms off gas. So that's a whole different thing. But David, just to jump back to your question walking through with first-time buyers, I would ask you to maybe at least give them the option of looking at
Starting point is 00:41:22 a master conversion because the garage is so much harder. If we're looking at like, how do we get into our first house and you've got clients that are right on the edge of getting qualified, the master is so much easier to convert, especially if it already has an exterior door. And everybody, you know, they want their kitchen and they want their bedroom. Those might be their goal. So it might be a hard sale to your clients, David, but just consider master bedrooms are always the easiest. Everybody thinks it's the garage. It's not the garage, especially if you can't meet the parking standard. So if you see a master bedroom that's big, has its own bathroom, has its own entrance. You're saying that can easily be converted into a studio, just throw a kitchenette in there and
Starting point is 00:42:02 all day long for so, I mean, your ROI is so much better. And then a year later, you go by the one you want that has the master. And a lot of times, if it's a three, two, there's a, the Jack and Jill or there's a close bathroom, or if there's not a close bathroom, there's plumbing on the wall of one of the other bedrooms. And you can add one little bathroom in your master and turn your master into an apartment for pennies on the dollar compared to a standalone build. That's a phenomenal piece of advice because most floor plans now, new floor plans are split floor plans. And so you've got your master on one side of the house anyway. That's a phenomenal piece of advice for people looking to do conversions. And this is what we mean.
Starting point is 00:42:43 mean when we say in this market you don't really find great deals you make great deals because you're turning that into something great if if when i go look at homes i'd say 90 percent what i'm doing is walking this house and my mind is trying to figure out could i do exactly what derrick's describing what areas would become their own units where is the plumbing running is there a is there a bathroom right on the other side of this wall that i could just take all the plumbing and push it over here how would we run the electrical for that kitchenette that has to go in there i love what you're saying Derek, and I think that it's never been more necessary than now in a market this hot. The last piece that I'll add that I don't know if we covered it in depth before we move on
Starting point is 00:43:18 is that in California and in many other markets that we actually passed legislation in California that made it illegal for a city or municipality to say you cannot have an ADU. I believe it was SB 9, right? Do you see something similar happening in Oregon? Yeah, House Bill 2021 in Oregon, SB 9, SB 10 in California. It's going to change the way housing is built and accepted. Very similar to when we had urban sprawl 50 years ago and the first multifamily structures started being built in primarily single family zones. It's the same wave.
Starting point is 00:43:52 If we go back and we look at the history, if you're not on board with an ADU strategy right now, like you're going to get left behind. And not only because you brought up California legislation, not only did the cities say, hey, all you planners in the state told all these city planners, you're not doing it right. All of our long-term planning sucks. We have a housing crisis. We're going to tie your hands and we're going to set the rules. They also said, you can split these off and sell them as fee simple lots, which is going to completely change the dynamic in California. You have, what, the fifth largest market in the world setting this new housing standard.
Starting point is 00:44:27 It's just going to sweep across the country. I mean, Florida's already doing it. There's stuff in Texas, Connecticut, New York. I put some stuff in the show notes where there's AARP. is setting a model code that a lot of cities and states are adopting. So if you're looking at an area and you think ADUs are coming, I would read AARP's model code. And that's probably pretty close to what's going to stick. Well, I'm glad we have you on.
Starting point is 00:44:52 I imagine, I'm not clairvoyant, but I would imagine your inbox is going to get pretty full after this episode. I don't know. I just tell you what, all I want to do is help people. And I want to make the promise that if you reach out to me, it may take me a year. if I get a thousand emails at an hour each, but I will get back to you. I want to help you create housing. I want to help you get off the hamster wheel.
Starting point is 00:45:15 Enough. All right. Well, we can't keep you all day, so we are going to move on to the next segment of our show. It is the deal deep dive. All right, on this segment of the show, we are going to dive deep into one specific deal that you've done. Do you have one in mind and are you ready to go?
Starting point is 00:45:36 Sure. Shoot. Okay, we will alternate our questions. And I will go first. Question number one, what kind of property is it? single family turned multifamily with the ADU strategy. Awesome. How did you find that deal?
Starting point is 00:45:49 MLS. I never get a good deal. I always pay market because I make the deal. Awesome. How much was this deal? $316,000. And how did you negotiate it if you did? That's a great one.
Starting point is 00:46:02 You know, it was on an online auction, and I was bidding against a machine, and I made a decision to spend $316. The deal closed. I got a call saying you didn't get top bid. You can add five grand if you want. And I said, no, I stuck to my guns, which was stupid. I would have added another $100 grand if I know what I know now. And they called me back and said, actually, you got the deal. So I was betting against the machine and just got lucky.
Starting point is 00:46:28 That's awesome. I love that you admit that. I've been there many times. Like, I'll give you, this is not my deal deep diet, but I'll just say last summer I was looking in in 2021 for a property for myself. This is the deal that got away. It's like that one girlfriend. You're like, what was I thinking?
Starting point is 00:46:44 Except for me, it's a house. Yeah. They wanted 1.8. I offered 1.85. It sold for 2 million. I didn't want to go that high. And now that property is probably like, it's the best you could find in the 2.5 range over just like a seventh month period. I'm like, why didn't I?
Starting point is 00:47:00 Yeah. So I feel you, Derek. All right. I'm glad it worked out for you though, because we have a deal deep dive to get into. Next question. How did you fund this deal? With owner finance. So 5% down.
Starting point is 00:47:10 primary mortgage secret weapon that's amazing so what did you do with it so this house is the textbook it had a big huge gaudy formal dining room with a kind of like second living room and there was one wall it was a shared wall with the kitchen and a shared wall with the staircase and an entrance on each side i literally pulled the permits paid the SDCs covered the two walls soundproofed the entire shared wall and punched a door out to a cute little patio. And I've got the happiest tenant you've ever seen in Oregon. Well, you sort of also described the outcome there. So we'll skip to the last question. What lessons did you learn from the deal? I learned the lesson that this process is really simple. Anybody could do it. And the deep dive here, David, and I won't take up too much
Starting point is 00:48:01 of your time, but it was on a big enough lot that I was able to split the lot and do the exact same process behind it. Like when I thought it couldn't get any better, it got better. Well, there you go, folks. That is exactly what it can look like when you use this same strategy. Simple. Doesn't have to be the deal of the century, but it ends up looking like the deal of the century after you make it into that.
Starting point is 00:48:22 So thank you, Derek, for sharing that. That's a great example. We're going to head over to the next segment of our show, which is the world famous. It's time for the fire round. We are going to ask you questions that come directly out of the bigger pockets forum and fire them at you and we will see what you can do with them. So if you're listening to this and you like what you're hearing, go check out the Bigger Pockets Forum and see what else might be in there. Question number one, what are the pieces that I should be looking for in my city's code for
Starting point is 00:48:56 ADUs? You're looking specifically for the ADU ordinance. Like I said, it's usually five pages or less. Most cities use the same code management software and there's a search bar and you simply go up into the search bar and type ADU, and it'll bring up every code. It'll usually bring up the definition, and then the specific piece of municipal code, read it. Awesome. Question number two, how much return will I see on an ADU? What are the risks to consider? So, like anything, there's risks in all investments. The return that I tell people to shoot for is 25% cash on cash return, unless you can use a little bit of leverage, and then the return is infinite. But for the example that David used, we'll just, I'll just pull that one up. Somebody owns a property in the Bay. They have a $120,000 standalone
Starting point is 00:49:50 build and say they can rent that for $2,400 a month. They have a 20% cash on cash return right there if they don't burr out of it, if they don't refy out of it. That's kind of where I tell people. But if you buy a house with a really easy master conversion, it just goes up from there. Okay, next question. A little different, but I'm curious if there is an answer to this. Are there any workarounds I can use that make an ADU comply if they aren't legal in my city? Great question. Yes. And that's where you go back and you become an code expert. And outside of municipalities, counties aren't as friendly to accessory dwellings or there's small towns that don't want to compete with the city. And what we have is a piece of code
Starting point is 00:50:31 called a detached living space. And the detached living space is kind of defined by the the national standard of planning as not a dwelling because it doesn't have more than three of the five dwelling statistics, which is eating, sleeping, living, cooking, and sanitation. So you build a detached living space at your municipalities max. A lot of them are four, six, or eight hundred square feet. And you put in a bedroom and you put in a wet bar and you can't have a stove. So what you do is you use legally, you get it permitted as a legal use in your zone. And then after, the inspection is done, people just use a plug-in hot top appliance. And those are kind of called legacy accessory dwelling units. But that's the legal workaround. So you meet the standard with the
Starting point is 00:51:17 city and then you want to make sure you insure it properly if it's a living space. So those are the things that I would say are workarounds per se. Great. Question number five. Who are the people I need to seek out to start an ADU build out? Just a GC? Is there other people? You know, I would start with doing the research yourself. In today's climate, you can get a general contractor, but you're going to probably end up managing the general contractor. So I tell people there's two ways to build an ADU. There's the easy way where you pay for everything. And then there's the hard way where you kind of self-manage. So depending on your time and your goals and your skill set, I usually recommend people at least try to general the project. So you follow a couple
Starting point is 00:51:59 steps. You have somebody like me help you. And you are a construction manager. So that would be kind of the steps to go about building an accessory dwelling. The more formal way would be to get a set of plans, and then you shop the plans around, and you have a general contractor provide that product for you at said price. Awesome. So I'm going to sneak an extra question in here. So you talked a lot about speaking with city planners and people of that nature to do your research. But there's oftentimes an art form when it comes to speaking to these planners and getting them to understand why you're asking questions, what you're trying to do.
Starting point is 00:52:34 because they're trying to protect their communities. So, like, what tips can you give people when reaching out to the cities to talk about potentially adding ADUs or how to get that going? I usually just start by telling them exactly what I'm looking at and what I want to do. So you're very direct. And I lead with, I have a little bit of planning knowledge and I'm really good at research, but I'm just, I know just enough to be dangerous. Could you tell me, based on your professional opinion, what you would do with this
Starting point is 00:53:04 property if it was yours to get the greatest and best use. And what I've learned is that you, it's not a manipulation tactic. You just, you empower them because they are the smartest person in the room. You empower them to tell you what you should do. And that's been the best strategy that I've found is just, you know, treating people right, being direct and asking them what they would do. And what I found is most of the time people come in and they tell them what they're going to do. But if you ask them what you can do and what they would do, it kind of, you see this shift and they're like, oh, wow, like this person cares about my education and my knowledge and my experience. And I kind of take that approach mixed with my imagination and my experience, and we can usually come up with a really
Starting point is 00:53:49 good plan. So that was a great question. I'm so glad you added that, Henry. I mean, that's, that's probably the relationships and the talking and the communication is probably the most important piece of this puzzle. That was a phenomenal answer. I hope you guys wrote that down. You're right. It's not a manipulation tactic. It's just treating people, right? But it feels like a Jedi mind trick at times, right? Because you're getting people to say, to talk what people love talking about themselves. And people want to feel like they're respected and that their opinion is valued.
Starting point is 00:54:18 And that really opens them up to being more helpful to you. I love that tip. Great. And I will second what Henry just said there as far as your answer, Derek. I still at this stage of my career, ask that to every single person. I was just this weekend looking at a house for myself in the East Bay area. beautiful house, $2.5 million place. We're going over what we would do to do exactly what you're saying with it.
Starting point is 00:54:40 And I would say, hey, here's what I'm thinking. What do you think about that? What would you do differently? And oftentimes what you'll see is hesitation in your contractor's face as they're listening to you because they don't want to say that's dumb or it won't work. Or maybe they're thinking through when I'm like, hey, here's my idea. And there's like 19 steps they got to figure out, which I've found is very different than me. They're like, where would the air return come from and where's our drain going to be?
Starting point is 00:55:04 right and you realize oh how would you do it they say you know you could just put it over there and i'm like yeah but that doesn't make sense why because you don't have to do this this this oh all right so and there is not a point in your career i think where you should ever get to where you're not asking those questions i really like that you brought that up cool thanks david yeah absolutely thank you for that great answer next segment of our show is going to be famous for this segment of the show we ask every guest on every episode the same four questions, and we are going to ask you yourself at this time. Question number one, what is your favorite real estate book? My favorite real estate book, if you're not already tracking, I'm
Starting point is 00:55:43 obsessed with accessory dwelling units, and this is the best piece of literature. This is the ADU Bible. My buddy, Cole Peterson out of Portland, Oregon wrote that. It's backdoor revolution. If you are wanting to build an 80 years, yourself, if you're a professional practitioner, or if you're a policymaker, you've got to have the book. Awesome. What is your favorite business book? Business book. I thought long and hard about this one. I wanted so bad to say set for life by Scott Trench. I mean, Scott and Mindy, if they ever listened to this, they've helped me tremendously. And I love Scott's approach that's simple. It's based on a solid financial foundation.
Starting point is 00:56:22 But it was slightly beat out by Jim Collins, The Simple Path to Wealth. And although it's more of an investing book, it's the same key principles. It's all about simplicity, a simple average plan repeated over time, and you have extraordinary results. And if that's an index fund, so be it, if that's an accessory dwelling unit or if it's a self-storage unit, the same rules apply. Fantastic. So what are your hobbies? You know, my hobbies right now are taking phone calls all day long for first-time home buyers for free and going and looking at almost every house that's for sale in the neighboring markets to try to help people say, this is where you can do an attached or detached ADU.
Starting point is 00:57:04 It's starting to bogg me down. That's the only reason I started this business is so I could track the calls and so I could kind of organize the workflow. But outside of that, I've got an amazing girlfriend, Bryce, and my family. We like to run around in the sun. I'm an avid trail runner. So I'm training for 100-mile or this year. I run a 50-mile or every year.
Starting point is 00:57:25 I try to run about 60 miles a week. And if the snow is good, you'll find me probably calling in sick at work and skiing powder on Mount Ashland. So running, skiing, ADUs are incorporated into everything I do. If I'm on a trail run on the PCT, I have the three spots. I know I can stop and get cell phone reception to look at something real estate. And if you don't believe me, both of you are welcome to call me and I'll answer my phone and I'll probably be on a chairlift or something.
Starting point is 00:57:53 So try me. All right. Next question. In your opinion, what sets apart successful investors from those who give up, fail or never get started. Relationships all day long and not just, you know, this awesome relationship with my lender or the relationship with the subcontractors, but the relationship that I have with myself, believing in myself when it's really, really hard, or the relationship I have with my girlfriend when she basically props up the whole day so I can work 16 hours and literally
Starting point is 00:58:24 fall asleep on the hardwood floor and front of the wood stove at night. Like the relationships I have in my life are the only reason I've found a tiny bit of freedom. It's no work of my own. It's all the people around me. I didn't even choose to surround myself with. They kind of found me. And to end with anybody can have those relationships. Like, I'm just an average person. Like, you can do this. I love that, man. It kind of rings true to one of the things that I always say, as people say, they're these self-made millionaires. And that's normally not the case. Man, it's your team made millionaire typically. Every time. Every time. Oh, that's beautiful. All right. Well, Derek, this has been an amazing interview on a topic that doesn't get talked about enough.
Starting point is 00:59:04 So I really appreciate that you did this. I think one thing that stood out to me was most of the, and this includes me, most people assume an ADU always means a standalone dwelling unit that is not attached to the home. But you gave a lot of examples of ways you can take square footage you already have that doesn't require a really big rehab budget or the $150,000 that I mentioned putting it down. And you can just take the property as it's built. Any last words that you want to add on that subject? Yeah, just directly to that subject. I know that there's a lot of places in the country that build with basements. And we didn't even get to talk about basement or attic conversions, but everybody's looking for a garage conversion. I mean, is it built on a house? Do you have a daylight basement? Can you put an egress window in for a few thousand dollars? And bam. The other cool thing about a basement conversion is all these municipalities have a high-end cap on square footage unless it's a conversion of a part of the existing home. if you have an 800 square foot ADU max in your area, but you have a 3,000 square foot two-story house, you can convert, not even the basement, the lower or upper floor. So I'm always thinking, you know, shared wall duplex, over under duplex, cottage-style duplex, but they're all within the ADU strategy. And the most powerful piece of the ADU strategy is you're getting multifamily results
Starting point is 01:00:22 without the 200-page code that wants curb and gutters, street trees, fire sprinklers, all this this list of bureaucratic processes that you can kind of go around with accessory dwellings. So I'm glad you brought that up, David. I wish I would have been able to share more about basement conversions. Awesome. So tell everybody where they can find out more about you. Yeah, check out my website, Thatadu guy.com. And then I also put a bunch of other competitor websites in the show notes.
Starting point is 01:00:53 So there's a bunch of other people that kind of do similar things in different regions. and it's all about sharing. This is collaboration, not competition. So everything that I know ADU that I send people to, I put in the show notes. But that adu guy.com, send me an email. My phone number is on there. If you call it, I probably will answer. I just ask that if you call me, be ready to take actionable steps to change your life.
Starting point is 01:01:18 Awesome. Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. Everybody reach out to Derek. He wants to help, and you probably need that help if you're trying to do what he's doing, which we do all the time where I live. Henry, also great job today, as always. Really appreciate your support in this.
Starting point is 01:01:33 I'm going to let you guys get out of here. This is David Green for Henry. Find That Red Truck, Washington. Signing off. Thank you all for listening to the Bigger Pockets Real Estate podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer.
Starting point is 01:01:55 The show is produced by Ian K. Copywriting is by Calicoe Content, and editing is by Exodus Media. If you'd like to learn more about real estate investing or to sign up for our free newsletter, please visit www.w.w.com. The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only. All host and participant opinions are their own. Investment in any asset, real estate included, involves risk. So use your best judgment and consult with qualified advisors before investing.
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