Our Blog
Aperiam harum
How your home can earn you money.
Here’s the thing, if you own a home, you too can convert, add on to it, or periodically rent it out. There’s more abundance than you may imagine— in expanding your home. In inviting, in letting others know they matter, that they belong, and they are welcome.
September 26, 2022
Value Added
What does it mean to say something is value added?
July 18, 2022
Is my property in Marin qualified for an SB9 lot split?
California Senate Bill 9 (SB9) gives homeowners in urban single-family neighborhoods the right to subdivide their lot and either build additional housing units on each parcel or build additional units on one lot and sell the other.
July 9, 2022
How To Solve Everything
We can immediately support and encourage the conversion of hundreds if not thousands of empty offices and retail spaces within our communities to quality, highly rentable, housing (that’s affordable and profitable for property owners). This encourages diversity in our neighborhoods.Thirty-eight percent of all offices in the United States are vacant.
July 1, 2022
A Housing Crisis and So Many Empty Offices
The pandemic has upended the way we work and emptied office buildings. This has created an opportunity for residential conversion to meet affordable housing goals while keeping our downtowns vital.
June 24, 2022
How many ADUs can I have?
An ADU is a legally permissible additional residential unit in conjunction with an existing property. An ADU can be part of a commercial space, in a residential backyard and a part of an existing home. There’s a lot of interest in something called a JADU (junior accessory dwelling unit). Single-family homeowners are now eligible to add both an ADU and a JADU on their property.
June 17, 2022
You Too Can Own Multiple Homes
In California, you can have multiple ADUs on your property. With the new guidelines that became effective in 2020, homeowners are able to build a second ADU on their lot. More specifically, they are able to build one full-size ADU (1,200 sq ft) and one junior ADU (500 sq feet). This means two ADUs generating two streams of income, at the same time increasing the value of the property.
June 10, 2022
The State of the Housing Market
The median home sales price within the U.S. in March 2022 was $405,000. Interest rates are up to 4.72% now. If the average buyer puts down about 10% and pays private mortgage insurance and you put all those things together you have a median mortgage of $2,602 monthly (plus repairs).
June 6, 2022
Think you know who is homeless? Maybe not.
Older adults represent the fastest growing age group of the homeless population in California. Nearly half of all homeless people in the United States are 50 or older, and nearly half of them became homeless for the first time after age 50.
May 28, 2022
Empty Offices Don’t Need to Stay That Way
Faced with an avalanche of vacant office space and a willingness to face reality, some towns and cities are beginning to allow and even encourage the conversion office space to multi-family residences.
May 17, 2022
An ADU will impact my home’s tax base, and other myths.
It is true, adding an ADU will affect your California property taxes, but your primary house will not be reassessed, and your property taxes will only increase based on the added value of your ADU.
May 10, 2022
What does it cost to build an ADU (accessory dwelling unit) in Marin?
Build costs in general have gone up over the past year, due to both material and labor shortages. We have taken this into account for ADU costs in Marin. Bottom line: $350-425 SF to build an ADU. Our estimate to build a one-bedroom ADU in Marin, on a flat lot--$275,000.
May 7, 2022
Why granny flats are great for granny, or women in general
ADUs are accessory living units from a main house–they can be attached or detached and they can be a female homeowner’s best friend.
April 29, 2022
JADUs — Junior Accessory Dwelling Units — Housing Solutions in Marin
With many retired singles and couples living in multi-bedroom homes in Marin, the potential for JADU bedroom conversions is promising.
April 25, 2022
VADU in the News!
VADU article speaks of strong housing solution in our vacant downtown commercial spaces.
April 22, 2022
Stay or Move: The Options for Seniors
With enough foresight, one can “downsize” and move to a smaller, safer one-story home [on your property!]. This plan will lengthen the time of living at home. Or you may choose to stay put, make modifications to the home, and hire caregivers and/or companions to spend several hours per day or week with you.This is the most expensive choice. Many choose ‘independent’ or assisted living. Lastly, there’s that all-time favorite: move in with your kids.
April 13, 2022
Here's How To Fix Our Downtowns
There is a crisis in the availability of affordable housing in our communities while vacant commercial spaces are staying vacant and growing.
April 6, 2022
Help! My ADU is illegal.
Large numbers of non permitted ADUs in Marin present many risks to both the occupants and the property owners. Getting those units properly permitted is now possible through new California ADU law. We can help you.
March 31, 2022
A Charity We Love
Welcoming Home (www.welcominghome.org) is a nonprofit organization in Marin County making a big difference. For over five years, Marin residents Marsha Roberts and Greg Hansen, along with a host of volunteers, have been fully furnishing and outfitting the homes of people transitioning out of homelessness. Make a difference and donate or volunteer with Welcoming Home.
March 24, 2022
VADU In Marin Housing News-ADUs Are the Solution
Richard Spotswood speaks about Marin housing solutions: "The strategy is to proactively facilitate construction of accessory dwelling units or ADUs. These in-law units and granny apartments are now permitted in single-family zoned neighborhoods.
March 21, 2022
Can your garage be an ADU?
Your garage can be a living space. California is an excellent location for conversions because existing garages are street level and easily accessible. Many have plumbing for washers and dryers and electricity. Also, our temperate weather allows cars to be kept outside and garages freed up for other uses. The right to convert garage space to ADUs is guaranteed under California law.
March 17, 2022
What is a Housing Element?
The California Housing Element identifies the creation of more than 14,200 new units in Marin County with roughly half affordable and around a quarter in unincorporated areas. We believe that ADUs are the perfect solution to the goals of the Housing Element with a mutual benefit to homeowners by placing more affordable housing within our communities.
March 11, 2022
What is Affordable Housing in Marin?
Pursuant to the most recent income level data from the State Department of Housing and Community Development, dated December 31, 2021, the Median Family Income (MFI) in Marin County was $149,600. For the five identified household income categories, household income levels (for four-person households) are defined as follows:
March 10, 2022
10 Reasons ADUs Are A Great Idea
1. ADUs generate rental income to help homeowners...
February 2, 2022
Is multi-family housing coming to my neighborhood?  And other mysteries of SB9.
There’s a lot of noise around this new California law. What is it all about? California Senate Bill 9 (SB9) went into effect January 1, 2022, which has left many local planning departments scrambling to create a process of responding to the revised zoning law. While policy guidelines are being formulated, many homeowners are confused about what is allowed under SB9 zoning updates. . .
January 15, 2022
If you are a California homeowner, you should know about ADUs...
ADUs are Accessory Dwelling Units that provide separate housing attached or detached from a homeowner’s house. Due to the critical shortage of housing and very high home ownership costs in California, new laws were enacted in 2020 and 2021. These laws removed many restrictions around building ADUs in California and contained measures designed to actively promote construction.
November 14, 2021
Cap rate explained: what is a cap rate?
Capitalization rate-or cap rate-is a financial metric used by investors to calculate what the rate of return from an investment is based on the net operating income the property currently or should produce and the property value or price. The cap rate calculation should only be used to compare similar properties in the same market or submarket for two main reasons. . .
February 21, 2019

The VADU Benefit:

We work only for property owners--helping enhance the value of your real estate to realize your financial/personal goals.
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We manage the conversion of underperforming commercial spaces into extremely valuable residential housing.
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We know the law, municipalities, architects and builders to quickly and cost-effectively create thriving multi-family properties to rent.

And, we are ADU (accessory dwelling unit) experts.
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Contact us to schedule a free assessment on the potential value of your property.
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