StreamHome Construction Podcast

Backyard Income: Unveiling StreamHome's Model ADUs

• Alex Kosley • Episode 12

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You Have Mentioned Your Model ADUs Several Times, What Are They Exactly?

Unlock the secret to maximizing your property's potential with accessory dwelling units (ADUs)! Join licensed general contractor Alex Kosley as he reveals everything Colorado Springs homeowners need to know about these versatile secondary dwellings.

A game-changing code revision hits Colorado Springs on June 30th, allowing ADUs on virtually all residential properties regardless of lot size. Alex breaks down exactly what makes a property ideal for ADU installation, from alleyway access to space requirements for these compact but mighty structures. Whether you're looking to generate rental income, house family members, or create flexible guest space, understanding these fundamentals is crucial before breaking ground.

StreamHome Construction has engineered four remarkable model ADUs designed for maximum efficiency and rapid deployment. From the compact 384-square-foot "Prospect" to their engineering marvel that somehow fits three bedrooms into just 748 square feet, these pre-designed units slash construction timelines dramatically. The most exciting advantage? Pre-approved master plans that can reduce permitting time from four-plus months to potentially just one month – getting you from concept to completion faster than ever.

The strategic location of your ADU matters tremendously for maximizing returns. Short-term rentals thrive near tourist destinations like Garden of the Gods, while mid-term rentals perform better near hospitals. Alex shares insider knowledge on how to match your property's location to your intended use, ensuring the best possible outcome for your investment.

Ready to explore whether an ADU is right for your property? Visit www.Yourstreamhome.com for a free consultation or call 719-644-6777 to speak with our team of experts who can guide you through every step of the process.

To learn more about StreamHome Construction visit:
https://www.YourStreamHome.com
StreamHome Construction
719-644-6777

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Stream Home Construction Podcast, where we take your project from conception to completion. Hosted by Licensed General Contractor Alex Kozley, we cover everything from accessory dwelling units to commercial construction in the greater Colorado Springs area. Whether you're dreaming of a new ADU, planning an office upgrade or tackling a major renovation project, we've got the expertise to guide you through it. Let's get building.

Speaker 2:

ADUs give homeowners a head start by offering smart, pre-designed layouts that save time, reduce cost and maintain flexibility. Welcome back everyone. Skip Monty, here, co-host slash producer, back in the studio with licensed general contractor Alex Cozley. Alex, how's it going? I'm doing great, skip, how are you doing today? I'm doing just fine, doing just fine. Pretty spring day. I'm thankful for that. I was wondering and I'm sure that some of our listeners have been wondering about this as well. Several times, you've mentioned your model ADUs on the podcast. What exactly are ADUs?

Speaker 3:

Yes, skip. So ADUs are accessory dwelling units which are basically a secondary dwelling. Consider your main house, your primary dwelling. An ADU would be typically smaller. Second dwelling can be used to rent out short-term rental, to rent long-term to house loved ones, to guest house, a flex space. There's a lot of different options available. But, as core, an ADU is just a second dwelling that you would have on your property where you have an existing dwelling already.

Speaker 2:

So like a mother-in-law kind of building.

Speaker 3:

Mother-in-law suite, granny flat, casita there's like a hundred different names kind of used in different places across the country.

Speaker 2:

Granny flat. That's a new one on me. I haven't heard that. Well, what type of properties are best suited for installing an ADU?

Speaker 3:

So well. In Colorado Springs, with the new code change it's going to in effect June 30th Most every residential property will allow an ADU. The most ideal conditions for an ADU would be having, like, alleyway access is typically preferred. Then you can have a separate entrance and separate parking on the backside of your property, even put a fence in between and have really two independent properties. Not always the case, so you ideally like to have. You really need some room for some extra parking and at least a pathway from the front of the house to the back. If you don't have alleyway access or if maybe if you're on a corner lot, you may not, that may be ideal as well.

Speaker 3:

Without an alleyway, oftentimes you can build a curb cut to build a driveway to the ADU on a side street. So definitely want to be thinking about your parking and access for vehicles and people who will be using the ADU Lot size. There's no restrictions from the city on lot size any longer, but I mean you're going to need at least a 16 by 24 footprint would be our smallest ADU model footprint and then you typically want about at least nine by 20 feet for a parking space and we do offer the models we're designing with garages under that can accommodate the parking space in the same footprint as the ADU. So, yeah, you want to have plenty of size. Ideally you'd have enough power at your house already to tie into or overhead power lines that we can tap into, and yeah, but then we also are looking for access to the site. We need at least ideally at least six feet of clear space on the side of the house to get to a backyard.

Speaker 3:

If there is no alley access, just for excavation equipment to come and materials in and out easily. So those are all really things that we're looking for. And then just geographically, depending on, if suited to your ideal purpose, your use of the ADU. If you want to do a short-term rental, you probably want to be somewhere where a short-term rental market is stronger, near the airport or near Garden of the Gods or Old Colorado City or some tourist destinations. Mid-term rentals typically want to be close to a hospital or an urban area. Long-term rentals can really vary, but yeah, so those are just several factors to keep in mind when looking for ADU-friendly property.

Speaker 2:

Now you mentioned your models. How many model ADUs do you currently offer and what makes them different or unique?

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, we're super excited about our models. We just we're just kind of in the thick of getting those built, designed, let me say, and then rolled out to be marketable to our clients. We have four models that are in design right now. Our first model, which we've been calling Model 1, we've been calling a Model 1, 2, 3, 4. We have just recently adopted a new naming convention so we're going to start naming them after streets in Colorado Springs. So we've named model one. Now we're calling it the Prospect for a couple of reasons One kind of fits it's a small model, kind of a glimmer of hope, a prospect for the ADU future in Colorado Springs.

Speaker 3:

But also our office is on Prospect Street and we're in the middle of securing a piece of land. That's on South Prospect Street where we're going to build the Model 1 as a model that customers will be able to see and actually sell that property. We're going to end up building three of our models on that property. So Model 1 is the first, the only one with a name so far, and it's a 384 square foot, one bed, one bath ADU. Then Model two is a 572 square foot, two bed, one bath ADU, and both of those are really designed to become the most efficient. One bed and two bathroom units that we can build for the lowest possible price Work great for high efficiency rental or just needing to get the most cost-effective kind of apartment in your backyard, whether it's for a mother-in-law or guests or whatever your purpose is.

Speaker 3:

And then we have model three, which is a 704 square foot, two bed, two bath.

Speaker 3:

It's the most kind of cozy, has the most kind of, the most spacious of our first four models and yeah, so two beds, two baths, two full baths inside of that, definitely bigger kitchen and living room compared to the other models. And then model four is a 748 square foot, three bed, one and a half bath, and so that's a super high efficiency rental unit for an investor. You can get really good returns, even on a long term rental using that unit. So the first four three of them are really designed to just be the most efficient one, two and three bedroom units that we can design that we think are still usable and they the reason that they're all under 750 square feet is Colorado Springs planning requirement. Basically, on any lot you can build as long as you have space, you can build up to a 750 square foot ADU, regardless of the size of the primary dwelling. So that's why we've, at least in our first four models, really stuck to keeping them all under that size limit.

Speaker 2:

And how many bedrooms was number four?

Speaker 3:

Number four is three bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, squeezed into 748 square feet.

Speaker 2:

Wow, Wow. Three bedrooms that's crazy man In 748 square feet. Well, I thought I heard that at some point that having your model ADU can help simplify the permitting process. Is that the case?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and that's one of the big reasons that we're moving towards the models is to really expedite our design timelines, pre-construction timeline. So we're creating what are called master plans here in our building department jurisdiction so we can draw up the plans. For model one. We have several, a couple of different options on that plan set. We get it to the building department and they basically pre-approve that so we can build it on any different building site as once we get the planning approval that's site-specific.

Speaker 3:

So that's a big reason and that can cut down our timelines on pre-construction from four or more months down to potentially like one month in order to get a contract signed and start construction. So it can really expedite the timelines on that. And then the models also expedite the process. They're designed to be very quick and efficient to be installed, minimal waste, everything's like on two foot dimensions. So less cutting, less waste, just faster installs all around. We're hoping in the long run to get our model builds down to three months for like model one, maybe three and a half months for the larger models.

Speaker 2:

Wow, so now are they pre-constructed and you move them there, or how does that work?

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So these are actually going to be all stick built on site. We are considering in the future depending on what kind of volume that we see and demand potentially panelizing the units so that we would be building the wall panels in our shop and then transporting them to the site where they'd be installed to save some time on framing. But that probably won't make a lot of sense till we have higher volume of units and then we kind of turn into more of like a factory to some degree. So for right now everything will just be stick built on site. The way they're designed.

Speaker 3:

Again, they can be framed up really fast. So this isn't like building a 4,000 square foot custom home and you've got weeks of framing. Most of these are going to be framed in one or two to three days kind of at the most. So we don't have major disadvantages. Of course, framing outside does make you more susceptible to weather, of course, and potential weather delays. But with the framing timeline being so short on these models, we're not super concerned that that will gain us a big advantage to be framing these inside at this time.

Speaker 2:

Wow. Well now, how do the model units compare in cost? Can you customize an ADU? If you have a model you can customize it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So our models, they're minimally customizable, especially right now. We're just trying to get them rolled out in a pretty basic with a couple of options, a couple of finished packages. We're not going to allow structural changes, at least right in the beginning, and we'll prioritize people who want to build them as design, partly just to get the wheels moving and get projects going, partly just to get the wheels moving and get projects going. Because, yeah, again, just making one small change can add a couple of months to the process pretty easily, just because then it has to go back to the building department, go through that cycle, and that can easily add a month or two months, depending on the circumstances. So we're trying to avoid that.

Speaker 3:

But we do want to give clients a choice. We'll have two pre-made finish packages you can pick, like the brush nickel finish package or the matte black finish package, and those would be like two options that you could just check. They're already selected, we're good to go. We'll also we'll give clients the opportunity to pick all their own selections if they'd like to do so, and they'll just have to do it within a pretty truncated time period near the beginning of the project to make sure everything's in order. So we have kind of the space shuttle plan and we're ready to launch without making decisions, once the project is commenced.

Speaker 2:

Gotcha. So they can customize to an extent, but there's a price to pay. It's going to take longer and maybe cost a little bit more.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it will cost more, for sure. It will take longer, yeah, and we do plan to make them more and more customizable as time goes on. But we just are prioritizing getting them out, rolled out and available to buy and really focusing on those model designs. So it won't have a lot of bandwidth to go in and be making small tweaks to individual models at this time, but in the future we want to make this program flexible and accessible and make sure it's meeting market needs. So we'll stay tuned to what the market's saying and what feedback we're getting on the models to make sure we're providing a product that really meets what consumers want and gives them some flexibility to adjust that as needed.

Speaker 2:

Awesome. Well, Alex man, this has been some very useful information on ADUs and especially with the timing in Colorado Springs, Perfect timing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Thanks so much, man, and appreciate it. Appreciate your time today and we'll catch you in the next episode.

Speaker 3:

Sounds great. It's great talking to you, Skip. See you soon.

Speaker 2:

All right, great talking to you too, man, have a great one, all right.

Speaker 1:

Great talking to you too, man. Have a great one. That's a wrap for this episode of the stream home construction podcast. Ready to bring your vision to life? Snag a free onsite consultation by visiting our website at wwwyourstreamhomecom, or call or text us at 719-644-6777. Until next time, let's keep building your residential and commercial dream in the greater Colorado Springs area.