By Living Room Realty, February 20, 2019
Chase and Mary had a dream. To be able to buy their first home that had a detached ADU (Additional Dwelling Structure) that they could create income through renting as an AirBnB. The trick was they needing to find something under $450,000 in Portland Oregon. They also wanted a decent location. Right now, a finished ADU is worth a minimum of $100,000 in addition to the value of the house. Median house prices in Portland are currently $385,000. This would, on paper, price them out of their dream. Not to fear Chase and Mary! Where there is a will there’s a way!
On RMLS, the least expensive homes of any size with a legal ADU, all started at $650,000. We quickly realized that many of the listings were not marking their ADUs correctly on the listings. Also, Chase and Mary were open to finding something that was close to being legal, that they could then bring up to code. Still, the dream home was elusive. What we did start finding was partial basement conversions. Finally, a home came on the market in the Foster/Powell Neighborhood that was a remodel by a developer. It had a garage that was converted into an ADU in the 1980s, and was within Chase and Mary’s budget. Usually, these conversions are done very poorly and need to be taken out. This one though, was done well very close to code. Chase and Mary made an offer and got into contract. They did their due diligence on what it would take to bring the detached space up to code. They went down to the city and researched permits. They hired an ADU expert to evaluate the property. In the end, they discovered it was a reasonable amount to bring the space up to code. Their ADU dreams were fulfilled when they closed on the property. Congrats Chase and Mary!
