In West Coast cities like Seattle and Portland, those coming for the new jobs created by the tech industry are faced with sky-high rents and cutthroat competition for housing, driving prices ever higher. Consequently, Portland is also relaxing previously stiff ADU regulations, allowing more homeowners to place ADUs on their property than before.
Appraisals can be intimidating in and of themselves. However, when it’s for an Accessory Dwelling Unit, or ADU it’s a completely new learning curve. Because ADUs are still a relatively new trend, the regulatory bodies are still catching up and creating new market standards for this process. There are, however, some key points that most appraisers would agree upon, so we’ll go over those with you.
Think tiny house, but adapted to meet the unique needs of the elderly, including the necessary medical accessories, a video camera system that can be linked to their caretaker’s phone, and a virtual companion, which can help play reminders for medication, sugar checks, etc. MED Cottages have some very unique safety features as well, including floor cameras in the event of a fall, pill dispensers, and an intercom to allow the resident to call for help if needed without having to get to a phone.
Some may think that any building could serve as an ADU. However, there is a big difference between an ADU and a shed, garage, or outbuilding. The difference is connecting your ADU and home. An ADU is a full time dwelling unit and therefore it requires the complete connectivity to utilities that any home would need; Power, Water/Sewer and often time’s Natural Gas for heating.
An accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, is actually a simple and old idea. To put it in simple terms, it’s having a second small dwelling right on the same grounds (or attached to) your regular single-family house, such as:
an apartment over the garage, a tiny house (on a foundation) in the backyard, or a basement apartment.