Looking at homes in COS... Couple questions (apartment, rent)

[cathartel]

Hi Everyone! I've been reading this forum for a while and have learned some wonderful info!! My husband and I might be moving to COS from Jersey if he gets this job (3rd interview this week!). My mother and grandmother would be moving out with us and have requested that we look for something with an in-law suite. Our budget would be no more than 275,000 probably because they don't have any $$$ to contribute toward the down payment and we would have to afford this on one salary alone. We also need to be in an area with good schools. We have a toddler and one on the way. Here are my questions:

-Are there homes with private attached suites in this price range or are they all in the super expensive homes over 7,000 sq ft?

-Are kitchens allowed in a finished basement? One thought is that Mom and Grandma could live downstairs, but seperate entrances, kitchen, and bath is a MUST. (Some wild personality differences!)

-Any other options that I haven't thought of?

Thanks all!

[tfox]

Originally Posted by cathartel

Hi Everyone! I've been reading this forum for a while and have learned some wonderful info!! My husband and I might be moving to COS from Jersey if he gets this job (3rd interview this week!). My mother and grandmother would be moving out with us and have requested that we look for something with an in-law suite. Our budget would be no more than 275,000 probably because they don't have any $$$ to contribute toward the down payment and we would have to afford this on one salary alone. We also need to be in an area with good schools. We have a toddler and one on the way. Here are my questions:

-Are there homes with private attached suites in this price range or are they all in the super expensive homes over 7,000 sq ft?

-Are kitchens allowed in a finished basement? One thought is that Mom and Grandma could live downstairs, but seperate entrances, kitchen, and bath is a MUST. (Some wild personality differences!)

-Any other options that I haven't thought of?

Thanks all!

There are many such homes with "private suites." Usually this is called a "mother in law" unit or apartment. Some homes of this types may be legal duplexes, others not, but in your case it should not matter because you're not planning on renting out the unit separately. You're usually going to find this type of arrangement in older homes (1970s - earlier).

Some homes will also have what's called an ADU (accessory dwelling unit), also known as a carriage house. This is often an above-the-garage unit, for example. This was very common in very old an historic homes, particularly larger ones, but you're seeing it more and more in newer homes, usually high-end ones. Generally these are not separate units, so you couldn't easily rent it out, but using it for your purposes would be fine.

There's no law against adding a kitchen in a basement provided you get the permits for it and you have no objection from you HOA (if you have one). From what I understand, the biggest hurdle is getting an electrical permit for the 220V necessary for your appliances, because you're clearly not putting a mini-bar in your basement if you need that. Gas appliances could be one way around that problem, though there are permitting headaches for that too. Generally, older, established neighborhoods without HOAs are going to be much easier to deal with than a newer one. Any active HOA is likely to have convenants preventing such a thing, so if this is your plan, better find a neighborhood without an HOA.

Certainly, the easiest way to do this is just to buy a place with a mother-in-law or ADU already. Adding it yourself is possible but you will likely need an experienced contractor able to navigate the headaches with permitting.

[Bob from down south]

I've not noticed any COS houses with mother-in-law suites in the sub-$300K range.

However, a year or two from now, some of the ones curerently closer to the $400K range might be down close to the 275-300K price range.

[Amery523]

Hi there-I looked into this very option just last year. We live on the north side of town, zip code 80918, but on north side of Dublin, so we are in District 20. Anyways, I thought perhaps my retired mother could come live w/us. We had a contractor come out and give us a quote, to extend the entire back end of the house to add on another bedroom, walk in closet, bathroom and an extra coat closet for our winter jackets to be stored in the summer time. It would also extend our upstairs bedrooms by the same amount of space. Anyways, it was going to cost $50,000. No stairs involved either. Ultimately my mother couldn't deal w/ the snow so we've pushed this project to the backburner.....may still do it just to raise the home value for resale but not too sure.

We have a 2200 sf home on a lot size of over 14,000 sf. It's a split level home w/ finished basement. My mother didn't want to stay in the basement - she wanted windows - that's why we investigated adding on as opposed to converting the basement.

[cathartel]

Thanks for the replies so far! It's so difficult deciding what our best option is with limited $$$. I think a lot of people are going to be in this situation as the baby boomers get older.

[bashep]

I sent you a pm with some ideas for you. My in-laws had a similar situation and we were able to find them something.