2021 $40K ADU Garage Conversion 428 SQFT E:20 The Inside Reveal 

Yup…people crying when I tell them my son lives in the garage! They can’t imagine it’s a real apartment.

That’s a really good size garage 23x20=460 sqft for a 1 bedroom unit.

I loved the price too. It seems very foldable.

The price really depends on a lot of factors including location, general contractor, structure readiness, plot layout, and ease of construction/permits. For my garage conversion, I had a lot of factors go my way and I was able to get a good price.

No architect involved. I came up with the floor plan and had the contractors draftsman create the blueprints. My GF did the interior design in terms of finishes. 360 sqft is more conducive for a studio with walk-in shower and kitchenette and laundry closet. Walls, hallway and closets eat up space. And 360 sqft (say 18x20) are typically the external dimensions of the garage. The internal dimensions are like 10% less. However, I have seen a RU-vid video of someone doing a 1bd/1ba in a small space. The living space seemed tight to me. I can’t remember their sqft. Anyways, I met with my contractor last week to get my plans back (he needed to make a copy of them but never got around to it). He still busy with his existing customer base, his own investments, his property management, and not taking online referrals. Oh….I found a video of a 360 sqft garage conversion for a 1bd/1ba ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UhH9vAVQwuA.html

Can I have your contractor to build my ADU?

South El Monte has hundreds of low cost cabinet and countertop places. Search on Yelp for kitchen cabinets. I’ve helped my GF and her family buy shaker style kitchen cabinets with quartz countertops at 75% discount compared to the big stores. 9-foot Quartz slab under $300 and each cabinet is like $75 each for the basic ones.

I was going to do a video on the costs for the attached garage conversion, but started focusing on my offroad SUV diy project. Anyways, the attached garage ADU conversion costs went something like this… $7k blueprints, plan checks, permit fees $40k construction costs $3k appliances $1k miscellaneous out of pocket costs $51k total Took about 6.5 months to get blueprints approved by city and 6 months for construction to complete with certificate of occupancy Started in July 2020 and completed ADU in July 2021 and got delayed on the certificate of occupancy until October 2021 due to electrical subpanel cover that was missing. My son move into unit in July 2021.

I hired a local general contractor (GC) in my area who did the garage conversion for that price. My contract was signed in 2020 and work was completed in 2021. This was completed as material and labor costs were about to skyrocket. And my GC doesn’t take internet referrals because he’s so busy and his prices have definitely gone up in the last year.

No. I didn’t have to replace the parking spots. I live within 1/4 mile from a bus stop and that qualifies for the parking exemption for ADUs.

@@MHam1 if you dont live near the bus stop then you need to replace the parking spots?

The ADU laws keep changing year after year. In 2020, the ADU laws had multiple exceptions for parking. You have to check the current 2021 laws, but this article seems to indicate that ADU garage conversions don’t require to replace the parking. www.newavenuehomes.com/blog/does-your-adu-need-its-own-parking-spot

Q1: Talk to your city to see what they require to get a permit on existing garage conversion. I believe that getting your existing garage permitted might be a lot of work if it wasn’t done to code. You will need to meet todays code which might require opening some walls to inspect the footings/foundation, vapor barrier on the slab, insulation, plumbing, etc. I just think it’s a lot of work to retrofit to get the permit. Look at my videos on what I had to do to convert my garage and that’s what’s you will need to have done or show that it was done. Q2: I sold some of my stock holdings and used some of my savings to finance my construction . Many years ago I refinanced with cash out to pay for the pool and kitchen remodel. So, I’ve used that option.

@@MHam1 thank you manny for your quick and informative response i will check with my city for my options ill keep you informed .

Please keep us updated, I'm in the same situation.

I hired a licensed general contractor to build it back in 2020 and it finished in 2021.

Blueprints, plan checks, and permits close to $7k. Construction costs $40k for attached garage conversion, appliances about $3k. So a little under $50k total. No loan for this ADU.

@@MHam1 awesome that’s pretty good 👍 thank you

Why did you ask if they got a loan?

@@jimklemens5018 most folks don’t have 70k laying around. I too was wondering how he financed and was going to follow up with a question regarding the type of loan used.

@@MHam1 Hi manny, what do you mean by attached garage ? Wouldn’t it be considered a stand alone garage since it’s not attached to the house ? Thanks !

$41k construction costs; $6.7k blueprints, permits, fees; $2.3k appliances like washer/dryer, gas stove, fridge, over-the-range microwave. Total is $50k including certificate of occupancy, separate electrical meter, and separate mailing address.

General contractor pulled permits to convert garage and upon completion….I got a certificate of occupancy from my city.

I might add that a permit has benefits. If you want your conversion to be done right, reduce the risk of liability, and be up to current building codes, then a permit is necessary. First, my initial set of attached garage conversion blueprints didn’t include a beam and its footings to reinforce the roof. This was required by the city and the structural engineer added a 5”x12” beam going across the roof with 4”x6” posts supporting the beam. Also, new 2’x2’x2’ footings under the posts were required. If I hadn’t gotten permits, it’s likely that the general contractor would not have reinforced the structure because it wasn’t in the blueprints and it didn’t look like it needed reinforcement. Second, you could potentially have legal/liability issues during construction or after you are renting the unit. The legal issues can stem from injuries to workers or tenants or even if you try to evict someone and the structure is not permitted. Third, building codes change all the time and if you think you can always get permits later, then you could regret it if the new building codes are very expensive to fix (like structural reinforcements, like firewall codes, like insulation, etc.). Also, building to code and with permits helps retain the proper value to the property. There many other reasons why a permit makes sense. Maybe a video on this already exists in RU-vid. Anyways, I’m sure there’s a lot of people who don’t pull permits, but for me I wanted to build it right, I wanted to reduce risk of legal issues, and I wanted my property value to be on the records. Also, I reported to my home insurance that I added units to my property and I wanted to increase my coverage. My home insurance wants to see the permits and certificates of occupancy in order to insure my added living spaces.

Sorry. My GC is super busy and he only works on personal referrals. I’ve referred a handful of people but I’ve been present at the initial introduction meeting. He has great prices but always takes longer to complete than original planned.

Hi Brenda, I can point you to Ryan at How To ADU. He’s a professional and expert in ADUs throughout the state. He has channel in you tube and his “About” section has ways to contact him. He offers virtual calls for a fee. youtube.com/@HowToADU ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NykDknr30Xg.html

I'll be doing another video soon with the total cost breakdown, timeline, and lessons learned.

It was difficult getting the precise dimensions (to the inch) of the garage because of the common wall and existing slab. I measured the outside dimensions and the garage was close to 17.5’ x 25’ plus or minus a couple of inches

No, I still have a mortgage.

@@MHam1what company did you use? Because you lost your garage, will that affect the value of the house when reselling? I am planning in building an adu on top of my garage. If you dont mind, what was the total cost?

I have a driveway that fits 4 cars, so that helps with the parking situation. I’m not planning on selling anytime soon and I plan to recover my construction costs in less than 5 years total by renting to my son at a discounted family rate. Even if the garage conversion adversely affects my property value (which I doubt), I will recover the costs and more than double my investment in 10 years. And it allows me to retire while collecting some rental income.

@@MHam1 very well. I hope to start mine before 2021. Did they reassess your property as a whole for tax purposes?

My understanding in California is that extra property taxes are only charged on the extra living-space square footage that you add. The existing square footage is not re-assessed and retains whatever tax value it's at (per Prop. 13 which limits value increases for property tax purposes). Also, it can take two years or more for the extra property tax to be added to your property taxes. Somehow my Los Angeles County Tax Assessor Office is slow in adjusting their tax rolls, but rest assured that they will update the tax records and will eventually send me the bill. I've been wondering what method they will use to calculate the added value of the ADU. They can either use construction costs or average sqft price for area. I haven't asked this question, but my construction cost is much cheaper than the average sqft for my area (especially now during the pandemic real estate bubble).

No, only greater Los Angeles area. Very small company that only accepts personal referrals

@@MHam1 Hi! I love all your videos. I know this is a long shot but I’m looking for someone to help do this exact work to my garage. But as you can imagine they’re asking for 100k + and I just find that exaggerating considering it doesn’t cost that much. GC usually pocket half of the money for one months work. I’m in Sylmar. Would your builders consider doing mine ?

The floor plan (aka room layout) was designed by me, the interior finishes were designed by my GF, and the unit was built by my general contractor (who also did the blueprints). Unfortunately, my GC doesn’t take online referrals. He has so much work off of previous clients and personal referrals that he won’t take online referrals.

Could you ask your contractor if he can help me with only the blueprints for a jr adu?