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5 Lies About ADU's (Accessory Dwelling Units) - YouTube
Channel: Kristina Smallhorn
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my channel is totally dedicated to
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affordable housing options i talk about
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manufactured homes tiny homes and
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inevitably in the comments section it
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comes up with adus and today i decided
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to talk to an expert when it came to
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adus and that is ryan o'connell he's
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going to be sharing with us the common
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misconceptions with adus the biggest
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lies when it comes to adus and all the
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things that you need to know before you
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decide to put an adu on your property
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[Music]
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i found ryan through tick-tock and then
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i found out he works for a company
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called inspired adus and he has a wealth
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of information when it comes to these
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adus and how you can use them for your
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property whether you're converting a
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garage into an adu or you're using a
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separate unit altogether so i know ryan
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knows all about all the common
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challenges when it comes to adus and the
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most common questions that people have
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if they're deciding to put one in what
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would you say is the most common
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question that comes with uh putting an
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adu on a piece of property i think you
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know this how much is this going to cost
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that's why there's so much interest in
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prefab because it's like i just go on
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amazon and buy this right and the truth
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is site-built
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houses that are like suitable for people
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live in are very rarely going to be that
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buttoned up and so people hear all kinds
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of different things like somebody in my
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comments the other day said they're
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going to build for 30 bucks a square
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foot that's out there now right that's
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information on the internet and then
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other people are like oh minimum it's
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going to cost hundreds of thousands of
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dollars and everybody's like how can the
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answer be that far apart like where do i
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where what's the truth and and the truth
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is complicated so i try to i try to walk
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people through that that question with a
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lot of different perspectives to try to
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get them to an answer that's satisfying
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and helps them plan effectively for
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their project really knowing what your
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primary goal is
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right because ads can do so many
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different things it's like buying a
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house it's like building a house and and
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really
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if you want to house grandma in the
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backyard or if you want to make a place
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for your
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your uh adult children to move back to
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your state like make that your goal
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and and then all the variables that come
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up you were optimizing toward
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mission accomplished on that goal and
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and once they internalize it and they do
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that then all of the other challenges
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that come up
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it's like man we can get through this
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together talk to people like they they
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often want to jump to like a specific
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question that's come up
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like uh how about how big can i build
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and it's like super specific right
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and i'm like i'm happy to answer that
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let's pull up your address you know
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while it's loading what are you trying
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to do with the unit uh you know tell me
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a little bit more about what your goals
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are for the next 10 years and where do
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you see yourself a couple decades from
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now are you still living in this by the
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end of it i can bring back the
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information that they've told me about
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themselves and say like you know
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are you sure you even want an adu it
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sounds like you're talking about a home
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office and like i get it pandemic
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you and your spouse are working from
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home kids are home from school you just
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need sound privacy
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there are ways to do like unpermitted
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accessory sheds and get like a little ac
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unit in there and electricity now hold
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on a minute when ryan mentions anything
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about sheds and not needing a permit
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that is not true of all locations just
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know in your area you're gonna have to
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check with the county zoning if you're
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allowed to have a shed with like an air
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conditioning unit that it can be
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required that you do not have to have a
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permit some areas are going to require
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and some are not he's specifically
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talking about his area so
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just because you heard it on the
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internet doesn't make it true always
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double check or even you know sb9 now in
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california so there's a new rule out
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here that lets people
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you could build an adu or you could
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build a second house and eventually you
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could sell that house separately whereas
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the adu you cannot sell separately so
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it's like okay well could you ever see
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yourself selling one of the houses if
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that's the case you might want to
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investigate this other new option
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uh and it kind of just depends it
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depends let's work through all the
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details that's that's where i that's
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where i come in what do you think the
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biggest mistake people make in when they
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go into uh doing this adu
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uh adventure there's a lot of different
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mistakes and some of them happen
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frequently but they're not a big deal
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the big one that's a big deal for me is
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when i meet somebody who
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is trying to create housing security for
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themselves or their family
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and they go into it without the budget
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to finish
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so if you if you hear that huge range of
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costs and you prepare for
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the kind of medium
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high cost
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and it comes out and you save a bunch of
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money that's a great news story but if
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you go in thinking i know i'm gonna
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spend less than the average person and
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then you get one bad surprise one
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mistake and all of a sudden you're
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halfway done with a house and you don't
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have the budget to finish it that stinks
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because because you you end up
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engendering more costs plus you've got a
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half finished project on your lot
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luckily most of the projects that peter
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out happen after they pay for the permit
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and haven't started construction
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but but still breaks my heart one of the
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biggest issues i've always faced when it
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comes to alternative or affordable
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housing options is the sewage itself it
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will require certain kinds of permits
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for it to be accepted by the county with
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these being attached to land i wanted to
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ask ryan what it is we needed to know
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for sewage when it came to a to use
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because it is super important sanitation
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is a big one right so like if you're on
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a rural lot one of the first things i'm
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going to talk to you about is septic
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capacity
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if you're on a if you're on a city and
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you're like oh no i'm on city sewer i'm
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like still not over let's talk about it
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let's make sure you have capacity
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because a lot of the time people are
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talking about a lot of new room capacity
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and it can it can really surprise them
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whenever you're working with a
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contractor or a adu specialist make sure
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you ask them the right kinds of
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questions ryan explains what the right
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kind of questions are but just know that
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you're interviewing them as much as they
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are interviewing you you want to make
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sure that the project that you are
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having done is something that they
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specialize in and if they can't answer
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your questions maybe you should consider
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hiring a different adu specialist it
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pays it pays to to work with people
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who've built ads before if you're in a
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city that's like really friendly to adus
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the planning department could be a great
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resource you're if you have a builder
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who's built adus before or an
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architecture designer who's worked on
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small spaces before then they can be
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really helpful um but whatever you're
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doing when you're building your team and
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make sure you have somebody with like
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adu superpowers on that team so that you
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you know uh they're gonna go in and
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fight adu details now everybody wants to
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know what the biggest lies when it comes
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to adus because everybody has advice so
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i asked ryan what are the biggest lies
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that he's heard when it comes to adus
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people say oh it's so easy now it's so
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streamlined for some people it's going
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to be easy for for millions of people it
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is going to be a streamlined process but
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for millions of people there's still
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lots of
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unexpected complications because the way
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the law works in california the state
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passed a bunch of blanket laws to make
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it easier then the local jurisdictions
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all interpreted them a little
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differently and some made it really hard
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on purpose and then the state passed a
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bunch more blanket laws and there and
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then they all affect the same body of
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code and so that's like a bunch of rules
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about how to build an adu but there's
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other parts of the code that are like
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fire code and building code and they all
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they all interact but it's not super
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clear how they're supposed to interact
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and then every city and county has to
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decide on an individual basis how
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they're going to interpret it so people
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go it is super streamlined now and i'm
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like you don't have to oversell adus
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adus are awesome like people want a
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little backyard casita they want to
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convert their basement or garage into a
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cool unit like people get why they're
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cool you don't have to lie to them and
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tell them it's easy now i've recently
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heard about adu companies that are a
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one-stop shop basically they do
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everything so i wanted to ask ryan a
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little bit more about that and if
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there's any kind of dangers of hiring
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somebody that is a one-stop shop when it
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comes to adus there's loads of companies
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that offer that and they all work
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differently i put them on two ends of a
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spectrum on one end you've got people
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who who are trying to do as much as
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possible in one company and then on the
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other end you have people who are going
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to introduce you to a variety of
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specialists and like you're that you
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have one point of contact with that
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company but you actually have lots of
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different vendors but both of them exist
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i don't i think there's their pros and
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cons depending on your individual
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project and your time like if you're a
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very busy professional and you get paid
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hundreds of dollars an hour there's a
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huge value to getting the person who
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introduces you to all the different
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vendors and acts as your one point of
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contact your time is money and you are
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happy to pay that that person a little
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bit of a premium so that they pick the
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best people that's one model and then on
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the other side i think uh personally you
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can't be perfect at everything you can
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be very in and the more you specialize
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the the more you're going to unlock in
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that one specialty and the more blind
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spots you're going to have to other
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things when you get a true a to z that's
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trying to do everything it's very hard
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for a business like that to be really
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great at any one thing that it does and
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so it makes sense if you're if
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architecture is really important to you
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get a specialized architect if roi is
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really important to you make sure that
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there's a financial planner or somebody
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who you trust with your financial advice
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to to work with that a to z firm because
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that's not their priority or their
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specialty you know so i would like yeah
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they exist but i would i would
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supplement them and staff them up if
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that makes sense everybody wants to know
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what the best resources when it comes to
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building anything whether it's an adu a
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tiny home a shed it doesn't matter i
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went ahead and asked ryan what he felt
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like is the best resources for you if
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you're deciding to do something like
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this a lot of the time people people
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kind of conflate or confuse architecture
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engineering
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and a lot of the different parts that go
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into that pre-phase if uh if you
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know a lot about about construction then
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you can piecemeal it out too and do that
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yourself if you don't then a good
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designer or architect is a good hand
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holder like a good client representative
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in a lot of those cases general
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contractors are good at different things
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and some gcs like that part and that
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they'll be honest about it and they'll
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tell you yeah i can do that i can handle
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those questions for you and then other
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gc's are like go get plans and come back
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when you're ready for me to like start
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hammering and like and that's a
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different kind of builder and like when
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you're interviewing them it's good to
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suss that out because like i said before
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you're building a team and like there's
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lots of different people and they're all
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supposed to have strengths and
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weaknesses
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and you want the team note to like you
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want to know the strengths and
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weaknesses of the team so you can fit
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the right pieces together um and if it's
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intimidating you could you could get
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advice on how to build teams from people
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so there there are lots of ways to use
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different team members now another
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resource i want to add to that is if
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you're planning on getting a structural
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engineer because if you're attaching it
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to a house because your area requires
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that they be connected somehow you're
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going to definitely need to have that in
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order for it to be in compliance not
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only with your county but you want to
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make sure that's okay with your
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insurance company too now i know you get
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really excited and you end up joining a
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bunch of groups on facebook because
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they're all talking about adus but there
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is some dangers in getting information
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from people on the internet who knew but
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you can still get some good information
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so ryan explains what information you
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should be taking from these adu groups
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and which kind of information you
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probably should just ignore yeah so i
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have a facebook group where i encourage
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people to to do that but with a big
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grain of salt and it's like i want i
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want you to get as much information as
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possible right and
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one of the places you can get
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information is other real homeowners
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it's a place i get real information that
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said like it's strangers on the
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internet and so you gotta you gotta be
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able to read read behind read between
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the lines and see oh this is real
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information this this person's very
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transparent they're sharing a lot or
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like you learn really interesting things
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i learned stuff from these homeowners
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because they're on the ground building
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on a daily basis and so they'll come up
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with a tax credit that i'm like oh
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you're applying that
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interesting you're applying this energy
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credit to an adu and you're doing a
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rental agreement with your son so that
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it applies that's a cool trick i put
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that in my back pocket i go check with a
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real lawyer
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and like that's now i've learned
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something
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sometimes that same group will come up
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with something like oh you don't need to
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you don't need to do fire sprinklers if
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your main house doesn't have fire
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sprinklers it says it in the law and i
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know because i've dove into that
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specific subject with that homeowner
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like yeah but but the homeowner has
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another problem they've built so far
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away from the road and the fire hydrant
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that the fire department is saying yeah
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in this exception you do need fire
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sprinklers and so you really got to take
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legal advice of the grain of salt right
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like strangers on the internet are not
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lawyers very important question i asked
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ryan is if this is the first time you've
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ever done an adu what would be the very
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first step when it comes to putting one
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in you want to know what the laws are in
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your on your property so it's like what
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city are you in or are you on a county
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property and like who is the government
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person who's supposed to know the rules
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for you they're not always going to know
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the rules sometimes you'll teach them
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some stuff but like figure that person
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out and like write to them and just say
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back of the napkin like here's my lot i
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want to do a little thing over here for
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grandma give them a personal story like
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you know a little heart string a little
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human stuff what am i can i do an adu or
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is there something else i should look
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into and they're going to start the
[822]
process for you they're going to give
[823]
you the shortcuts and then you go
[825]
research then spend time googling and
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watching videos on youtube and that's
[830]
the starting point figure out what the
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law is where you live because
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everybody's got a different law whenever
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you're talking to any company about
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putting in your adu you're going to want
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to know the important questions to ask
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them first so i asked ryan what
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questions should we be asking if we're
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deciding to put an adu on our property
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because there's a lot of scams out there
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on the internet when it comes to adus it
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isn't just adus it's tiny homes and
[852]
manufactured homes as well so you want
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to be armed with the right information
[855]
ahead of time so you know you can spot a
[856]
scam instantly the really specific
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answer is like based on your goals if
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you're like if you know
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i want the little casita for for mom i
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need a kitchen in there because she
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loves to entertain on her own we wanted
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to like if the more you know about that
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the more you can find the right adu
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company for you because you can say that
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right off the bat and be like how many
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people like me do you help are most of
[880]
your customers building a unit for their
[882]
family member or most your customers
[884]
real estate developers who are building
[886]
rental units or do you specialize
[888]
outside of california maybe they
[889]
specialize in airbnbs and like
[891]
conversions into short-term rentals and
[893]
everybody's got like a niche right and
[895]
if they can't describe their their
[898]
typical customer to you that's a problem
[900]
that's a red flag
[902]
if you're a gc
[903]
then you're a licensed contractor you've
[906]
got an insurance policy on file with the
[909]
state and and people can look up your
[911]
license make sure it's current make sure
[912]
your insurance policy is big enough to
[914]
be having multiple jobs at once and big
[917]
jobs not just small rehab um if you're
[919]
an architect you're licensed if you're a
[922]
financial advisor or lender you're
[924]
licensed and a realtor is licensed right
[927]
and so those regulations um
[930]
they exist to protect you so you use
[933]
them if it's a company and you're not
[935]
sure i think one of the one of the
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things that gives me a lot of comfort in
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the early phases because a lot of the
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time people ask me to look people up and
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it's kind of online and just drive out
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and see the thing and i'll be like let's
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find pictures of projects underway with
[950]
like them and those pictures if the
[953]
pictures kind of look generic or stock
[955]
i'll do a reverse image search on like
[958]
google reverse image search and just see
[960]
is this picture all over the internet
[962]
and lo and behold a lot of the time it
[963]
is
[964]
uh if it's all 3d model renderings
[967]
you're like you know there are stages of
[969]
a business where all you have is 3d
[971]
renderings it's like you haven't built
[974]
yet
[974]
and a business that only features 3d
[976]
rendering should be really honest about
[978]
that and say like this is a rendering
[980]
and if you ask them how many they built
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and they say oh we built tons you know
[984]
can i see some pictures they're like no
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we only have a 3d renderings that's a
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bit of a weird like
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a piece of advice for me as a real
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estate agent and has a person who's done
[994]
enough projects around my local area the
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best thing you could do for yourself is
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have a good relationship with the
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building and zoning committee or the
[1003]
building and zoning in your area and
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walk them through your whole entire plan
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ahead of time that relationship that you
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build ahead of time can save you tens of
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thousands of dollars because they can
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tell you exactly how you should name
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your accessory dwelling unit on your
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property so that way you may not have to
[1021]
pay as much in taxes especially if you
[1023]
made good buddies with them a good
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relationship means
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lots of money in your pocket and
[1028]
construction is so real stated so
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every single lot every single house is
[1035]
different and and you you want somebody
[1038]
builders you want builders who know that
[1040]
region architects you want architects
[1042]
who know somebody at the planning
[1043]
department it's so it's so true that
[1045]
like we just talked about cottage
[1046]
industries it's cottage for a reason
[1049]
like it's it's tough it's tough to
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streamline and foundations are extremely
[1054]
important because
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just because your cousin was able to put
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it on peers
[1060]
does not mean that your area is going to
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allow your foundation to be on pierce
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and and the type of adu that you get
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just because the neighbor across the
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street was able to um put it on cinder
[1073]
blocks that doesn't mean that the adu
[1075]
that you're getting is going to be able
[1077]
to be put on cinder blocks that your
[1079]
type of home might be completely
[1081]
different so don't discount what the
[1082]
person that is helping you is saying
[1085]
they are an expert in their field so
[1088]
listen to what they have to say
[1090]
especially if they've been doing this
[1091]
for a while because like i said the
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neighbor across the street might have
[1095]
the wrong foundation all together so
[1098]
in five years you're gonna be watching
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your your friend's adu falling in a hole
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you know like leaning off to the on the
[1104]
side
[1105]
this is one that comes up a lot in that
[1107]
facebook group where people will come in
[1108]
and say i don't know my contractor's
[1110]
telling me this i'm really suspicious
[1112]
what do you think
[1113]
and people will give them all kinds of
[1115]
advice some people like ditch that
[1116]
contract or other but but then i always
[1119]
kind of say hey so you've got a bunch of
[1121]
advice what you should do now is go have
[1123]
a real honest conversation with your
[1125]
contractor because things are not on
[1127]
good footing if you already are worried
[1130]
all the advice in the world from us
[1131]
isn't gonna fix your relationship with
[1133]
this person and you're like in deep
[1135]
right now they are building your house
[1137]
go have an honest conversation outcome
[1139]
oriented how do we make this work like
[1143]
i need i need to trust you here's what
[1146]
would help me trust you and remind me
[1149]
that you are a professional that i am
[1150]
paying to do this project ryan connolly
[1152]
with inspired adus has given us some
[1154]
great information so now that you've
[1156]
heard all this are you still considering
[1157]
putting an adu in your yard let me know
[1159]
in the comments section maybe you've
[1161]
actually changed your mind and you want
[1162]
to put in a tiny home or even a small
[1164]
manufactured home if that's the case you
[1166]
were going to want to check out these
[1167]
videos right here my name is christina
[1169]
smallhorn your real estate whisperer and
[1171]
i tell you all this because good real
[1173]
estate information matters
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