Undoubtedly, the biggest challenge in renting is finding and managing the right tenants. Too many property owners side step this issue and are only too eager to occupy the property without proper screening or vetting. When possible a homeowner may want to consider hiring a professional property management company to take care of the tenant headache. If this is a homeowners first rental property, they may not want to go that expense. They may choose to self manage the ADU.
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.
Families are going back to the good old days of multi-generational living situations, and they aren’t just putting granny (or junior) in the extra bedroom. They are building elegant super cool in-law units. Another name for these types of rental areas is an Accessory Dwelling Unit or ADU. These ADUs can be over a garage, in a basement, or even in a totally separate building on a homeowner’s property. The ADU must be owned by the homeowner, but it can be rented out just like a rental. Here are some scenarios of the trending ADU growth…
For many years, backyard cottages — also known as granny flats, mother-in-law suites, or accessory dwelling units (ADUs) — were treated as nuisance uses, outlawed in urban and suburban zoning codes around the country. But as affordable housing becomes ever more scarce, cities are beginning to look at liberalizing rules for building ADUs, as a way of adding cheaper, more diffuse housing supply in tight markets.
According to Accessory Dwellings website, the following are the some steps for planning, designing and permitting an ADU.
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.