Why building a tiny home in my backyard has made me an ADU evangelist

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I built an ADU in my backyard that brings in $3,000 a month. Now I urge other California homeowners to do the same.

This story is based on a conversation with Joyce Higashi, who built an accessory dwelling unit, also known as an ADU, in her San Jose backyard in 2020. Now, she advocates for ADUs at events throughout the Bay Area. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

I left my job at the Oracle Corporation in 2015, and now I am semi-retired. I am planning on doing something to go back to work but haven't found that yet. So in 2017, I told myself, in the meantime, I need to have some passive income. It was so confusing for me: you have to get an architect to design it, then you have to do all this engineering, you need soil inspections, and then permitting — which is supposed to be a nightmare.

I just didn't want to spend that much money for something that was just okay, so I put it on hold for a bit. Then two friends within the same week had seen Abodu on the news, and said"I think this is what you want to do." So I looked it up online and saw that they were prefab units. In early 2020, they sent someone out to do the foundation. Then, the day it was supposed to be there, it was delayed because of the weather. Then COVID happened, so it actually got delayed two months. but they had to shut my street because this ginormous crane came.

I didn't rent it out all in 2020 because, you know, it was COVID, and my original plan was to do Airbnb.

 

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